


Marvel Zombies: Then End Days

by Bubblegum_Bee_otch



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Zombies - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:14:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 23,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22793056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubblegum_Bee_otch/pseuds/Bubblegum_Bee_otch
Relationships: Vision (Marvel)/Original Female Character(s), Vision/OC





	1. Froot Loops and Dead People

An old rerun of ‘I Love Lucy’ played in the background as the day wound down with the Avengers lounging in their suits in the main room of the Avengers Mansion.

Natasha and Clint lay sleeping in an uncomfortable-looking tangle of limbs which was about normal for them.

Steve, Tony, Thor, and Luke sit around a little card table and played a few hands of poker.

Carol and Wanda talked about a new show that they had both taken up watching. 

Vision and Melissa sat curled up under a blanket and read the books that they had started reading the previous night.

In other words, a completely normal and unremarkable day in which the team was wrapped up in their own little worlds.

And so, of course, no one saw Jarvis as he clicked the button for the outside intercom.

But they all heard it as the same intercom and gates are destroyed.

The team moved with lightning speed as they get to the now destroyed entrance of the building.

“Can we help you?” Colonel America asked in a less than friendly voice which prompted Powerman to step forward and pick up the intruding man by the collar of his blue button-up.

“Or should we just skip ahead to the part where we pound your skinny butt into next week.” he growled before dropping him down to the ground “You want to explain what you got against our intercom?”

“No time…we got some serious business to discuss, dire end of the world kind of stuff” the man blurted out, his hands moving animatedly as he spoke “I got information, information about Deadites. ‘This world will die and an army of the dead will rise’.”

Vision and Melissa glanced at each other, in the way that only really made sense to each other. At best the man was a loon and at worst he was right.

“Okay, tell us about this information. What is the nature of this threat? And how exactly did you come by it?” The Colonel asked as he interrogated the man

“Well…a bag lady told me, but that’s not the point.”

Melissa and Vision shared the same look as before, him being a loon was becoming more and more likely with every word that he spoke.

“Listen, I know how this sounds but I’m not some kind of froot loop!” he exclaimed, “I’ve fought the deadites…Traveled through time to fight ‘em. Even fought ‘em when they locked me away in the loony bin that time. And now I’m here, in this dimension, and they’ll be here soon enough too. Mark my words.”

Thor chuckled, finding the whole situation hilarious which prompted Vision to cough as a covert way to tell him to stay quiet.

“Damn it! Stop laughing! This isn’t a joke and you superpowered nitwits are starting to really piss me o-”

Scarlet Witch rolled her eyes, having had just about enough of the man, and cast a spell making the rambling man disappear as Jarvis appeared in the doorway of the mansion. “Good timing getting rid of him. We’ve just received word…something odd is transpiration in midtown.”

“Thanks, Jarvis, we’ll get over there to investigate” the Colonel announced as the others went to ready the Quinjet.

They made it down to midtown and found the same man as before running around. “I really think he is a loon,” Melissa muttered, holstering her pistol on her thigh.

“Bout damn time! You bozos ready to listen to me now?”

“Not exactly,” Ms. Marvel said as the team walked over to him.

The team started talking to one another for a few moments before the guy spoke up “Couldn’t get enough of the Ash-man eh pretty ladies?” he said in the sort of cocky tone that annoyed Melissa to no end

“I’m going to wring his neck” she muttered before Vision slid his arm around her waist to calm her.

“As much as he may deserve it…” he murmured, letting his voice trail off as he held onto her.

Screams filled the air and they tore themselves away from one another only to watch as a man in a ripped golden suit descended from the sky…

And started taking bites out of civilians

The Avengers ran forward, weapons and powers at the ready to battle back the monster.

And. It. Was. A. Blood. Bath.

A scream ripped itself from Melissa’s throat as the monster in gold snapped Black Widow’s head clean around, the skin on her neck being scratched by his fingernails.

She ran forward, gun in hand, bullets cutting through the air.

He turned to her with a feral growl before he grabbed her neck. She, of course, growled back in the same feral manner as she tried to tear him apart.

He just sniffed her and sneered before throwing her to the side, completely disinterested in her.

Melissa’s eyes filled with tears as she turned her face away from the carnage. She got lucky that he had no interest in her.

Most of the others were not so lucky.

Clint had a bite out of his arm that bled profusely as he groaned.

Steve knelt on the ground, a scratch on his jaw bleeding and dripping down his suit.

Luke sat limply his chest torn and ripped as his dark red blood dripped down from the wound.

Carol had become limp as the monster held her by the neck. Just as he had done Melissa. Only he didn’t lose interest in her.

The others started to rise again and hope-filled her for a moment.

A teeny tiny moment.

Before it fell and she saw that they too had become monsters and began doing what had been done to them.

Consume.

Melissa’s eyes widened before she stood and ran.

A few of the others had ran before her Tony, Thor, Wanda, Vision.

She was fairly sure that she had heard Vision yell for her to come with him. But she was too focused on watching someone, who had become her sister over the years, have her neck snapped to really pay much attention or listen.

But one thing was for certain, they were a whole hell of a lot smarter than her.


	2. Chapter 2: Zombies and Helicarriers

She ran through the streets which had fallen to chaos. Most of the Avengers that were on the scene had turned the streets of New York into their own personal buffet as they tore into the poor civilians who had decided to exist outside of their homes on that particular day.

A blonde woman screamed for help as she was chased by one of the…former… heroes she was fast but not fast enough as she is grabbed by a zombified Colonel America.

Melissa ran forward and looped her arm around his neck, keeping him from being able to sink his teeth into the flesh of the blonde woman. “Get out of here, I’ll handle him.”

The Colonel started screaming and thrashing against her hold as he tried to grab at the blonde woman again.

She nodded as she made a run for it. Melissa doubted that she’d survive if things kept going the way they were, but at least she’d have a fighting chance.

She tightened her grip on his neck with the palm of her hand bracing on his head. She was ready to snap his neck at a moment’s notice. 

A deft flick of the wrist.

That’s all it would take.

But she couldn’t do it.

She pushed him away from her before she too made a run for it. She needed to get to the others so they could regroup and figure out how to tackle this. Somehow.

The streets were becoming more and more chaotic by the second and she knew she couldn’t stay on them for much longer. She had doubts about their ability to infect her like the others but it wasn’t a theory she wanted to test at the moment and as such, she knew she needed to gain the high ground.

She pulled down the fire escape ladder for one of the residential buildings nearby only to see Thor and Nova battling back a group of recently turned zombies.

She pulled a knife from a little pocket on her thigh and grabbed one of the offending zombies and slammed the blade gleaming silver knife into their temple releasing them from the false impersonation of life that had taken hold of them.

The rest of them attack all at once and threaten to overwhelm the three still living heroes before a stream of fire destroys one of them revealing their saviors as-

“The Fantastic Four. Cool!” Nova exclaimed with a smile as the 

“I thank thee for the assistance Reed Richards and family”

“Me too” Nova pipes up as Melissa gives a little wave in acknowledgment.

“Then do me a favor and come with us,” he said as he pulled Melissa, the only non-flyer of the three into the hovercraft “Things are getting worse out here and we could use all the help we could get.”

The other two fly beside them as they take off away from the carnage that covers the ground.

Melissa’s hair whipped in the wind as she pulled up the hologram function on her watch to see a notification from Nick Fury.

She must have missed it during all the chaos, she thanked whatever pathetic good for nothing god was out there that at least the Fantastic Four had got to them on time.

The helicarrier came into view making her smile ever so slightly “You’re looking at humanity's last and best hope.” Reed Richards announced, “Welcome to the resistance.”

They quickly landed in the helicarrier’s docking port and went to the main bridge to reunite with anyone they could.

Melissa looked around her silver eyes raking over the crowd of heroes and villains.

She spotted him looking frantic as he moved through the middle of the crowd. It took her less than a few seconds before pushed past an assortment of different heroes and villains and closed the gap between them.

“Melissa…” he whispered and he hugged her tightly, “I thought I had lost you…”

“You could never lose me.” she murmured, pressing her lips to his in a sweet and chaste kiss.

He smiled softly and held her close to him, desperate to not lose her again.

“I love you”

“I love you too”

Their faces wore small soft smiles as the engaged pair of heroes held onto one another for as long as they could before the others were called to order by Nick Fury.

“The epicenter, the start of this…plague or whatever you would call it, was in the center of manhattan. That’s the first known instance.” Fury announced as Vision and Melissa moved to have their arms around each other's waist. “We don’t know how, but something from another world broke through, came to our world. The Avengers, as is often the case, were the first on scene. The first to be infected. Colonel America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel…They were the start of this. In a matter of hours, it has spread to all the corners of the U.S. As far as we can tell only metahumans, but that may just be because most normal humans are being completely eaten and can’t fight off these monsters.”

He takes a brief pause before he continues to speak “As it is now, it’s already too late to be contained. But it may not be too late to stop it, maybe even reverse it. You are this planet’s last hope if you do not succeed…We die. That is why I’ve gathered you all here.”

“Who let him in here?” one of the heroes demands as he looks at Magneto

“Magneto’s with us, bub. You got a problem with that?” Wolverine growled

“Right now.” Fury says cutting them off “if they’re not trying to eat you they are an ally. Magneto is an asset we can’t ignore under the current situation”

“So what is the plan,” Tony asks

“The plan Iron Man is for you to work with Reed Richards and Bruce Banner. While you do that the rest of us will divide into rescue squads, saving who we can, bringing them here, until we save the world. Everybody clear?”

“THIS IS CRAZY!!” Nova yells “Do you guys realize what we’re up against!? If-”

“Someone isn’t here they’re one of the monsters? We know. But we don’t know what we’re up against” Melissa said sharply, cutting him off “This isn’t the Kree or Skrull invasions or even Thanos. This is nothing like our usual big bad but we need to do what we can to fight against this.”

“It’s not a perfect plan but it’s all we got. The alternative is to give up. Anyone who prefers that option can speak up at any time” No one responds to Fury’s words “That’s what I thought. Let’s get to it, people!”

Everyone starts to disperse and Fury looks around before his eyes settle on Vision and Melissa, he quickly stops them and starts speaking to them alone “You two need to stay together, you make a much much stronger team together than alone and moreover you both are possibly our best assets. You’re both non-biologicals and as such you can’t be turned like anyone else here but…if things go wrong you may end up the only survivors…”

They glance at one another then look back to him “Then that’s something we’ll have to live with” Melissa said softly as Vision gently squeezed her.

He nods as he studies them both. He knew them just as well as anyone else, he would have been the officiant at their wedding…Though that would never happen “Godspeed”


	3. Chapter 3: Death, Taxes and Wolverine

Vision held Melissa’s hand tightly as they looked over the streets below them, they buzzed with the dead who kept feasting on the poor people who couldn’t escape them.

“Are you ready?” he asked in a soft whisper

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” she murmured before giving him a soft smile

He smiled back and kissed her hand before they walked to the ship that they had been assigned to.

They boarded and sat together in comfortable silence, there was nothing left for them to say. They knew what they were going to accomplish, what it would cost to accomplish and the even bigger price that would come if they failed.

She leaned her head on his shoulder with closed eyes. She looked deceptively relaxed and at peace, but she wasn’t. Vision could tell.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and rested his head against hers, prompting her to grab his free hand and lace their fingers together.

He planted a soft kiss on the top of her head as he held her close. He wanted to be able to hold her as long as possible. They were walking into a massacre caused by their friends and at the very least he wanted to be able to ease her worry.

The ship landed and they both stood, their fingers interlaced. “Ready?”

She nodded and gave him a soft kiss on his lips “I’m ready…”

They walked off the ship together, their grip on each other's fingers becoming looser and looser as they tried their best to prolong whatever contact they had.

Their fingers fell away from each other as the ramp on the ship lowered and the doors opened revealing the massacre on the streets.

~.~.~.~.~.~

The battle raged on, with Melissa and Vision staying as close together as they possibly could.

“You don’t understand, we tried to fight this, WE DID, but we just can’t. This is what we are now! There is nothing we can do!” Colonel America spat, as he blocked a hit from Melissa with his shield

“We don’t care,” she growled as she snatched his shield and threw it to the side. He tried to bite at her but missed as she sidestepped him then elbowed him in the back making him fall to the ground rather helplessly.

He got up and moved away, having lost interest in her. She wasn’t edible like almost everyone else. Why bother?

She looked around Vision was nowhere to be seen and as she looked around it became increasingly obvious that they were losing as people on their side dropped like flies only to come back and attack their former allies.

She kept fighting and holding off the zombies that threatened to attack the fleeing people until she came face to face with her sister.

Her vibrant red hair flowed in the slight breeze as they stared at each other, not saying a word.

The silence lasted for all of one moment before Natasha growled and lashed out, her mouth opening and closing with a snap as she tried to bite Melissa’s metal skin.

Melissa jumped back and evaded her attacks allowing her to fall to the ground. Natasha brought herself up to a kneeling position before she looped her arm around her throat.

Natasha growled and clawed at her arm in an attempt to get free from Melissa’s grasp. Her hand shook as she pressed the barrel of her handgun to Natasha’s temple. She kept thrashing and trying to attack her as hot, blinding tears run down Melissa’s face.

She knew that there was no coming back for Natasha.

She had spoken to Tony and Bruce before she had come down. Best case scenario they could prevent the virus from being passed to anyone else or stop it in the early stages. 

There was no coming back for someone who had been turned already.

The tears flowed down Melissa’s cheeks as she held onto Natasha, her sister in everything except blood. A short, shaky breath left her as her finger started to squeeze the trigger 

“I love you Nat…I’m so sorry…”

A loud bang rang through the air and Natasha slumped forward. Dead, for good.

Melissa sobbed as she let her go. Her decaying body falling to the side, dark red blood and pink brain matter glistened as it decorated Melissa’s suit and skin.

She stood and looked around it was worse, so much worse. She saw Wanda about to be bitten and ran forward shoving her shoulder into the offending Zombie pushing them out of the way.

“Get out of here!” she yelled to her

She shook her head trying to object to the idea “But what about you?”

She grabbed her shoulders firmly and looked at her “We’re losing, badly. Right now the best thing is for as many people to get out of here as possible. Don’t worry about me. Just run.”

Her eyes were wide but she nodded and turned on her heel and ran as fast as she possibly could.

Melissa watched for a moment as she ran away.

At least one person she cared about had a fighting chance.


	4. Chapter 4: Doctors and Death Books

Magneto had long since called for everyone to fall back.

The helicarrier fell soon after.

Melissa was lucky that she’d stayed behind. Most of the others, not so much.

She had hope that Vision was also as lucky. She hadn’t seen him since they were fighting against the others, it pained her beyond all reasonable belief to think about him being gone. Being killed.

She crouched on the top of a residential building, watching, waiting. Her nimble fingers played with the silver engagement ring that she wore as a necklace. She watched and waited in relative silence. She needed for the zombies to thin out some. 

Fighting her way out would be a lot more than she would want to deal with and going from building to building would draw too much attention from any zombie who bothered to look up.

She stood and started walking around the perimeter of the roof, looking to see where, if at all they had thinned out at all.

Seeing no difference, she crouched back down and started up the hologram on her watch. She hesitated for a moment before she hacked into the S.H.I.E.L.D. databases. She knew that the zombies still retained the intelligence that they held when they were still human, the last thing she wanted was to sign in with her credentials and have to deal with was one or more of them hunting her down.

She read over the most recent files with the hope that she might be able to pick up where the others left off with their cure.

She didn’t find a cure, but rather she found notes written by Reed Richards.

Horrible notes that spoke of the “superiority” of zombies. Their increased strength, speed, and dexterity. Their inability to feel pain and their minimalized bodily functions. The possibility they held for immortality and the lack of a need to reproduce. He had found all this and more.

It was good information and she was grateful for most of it but the way it was written sickened her. He was idealizing these monsters. Making them seem like perfect beings.

Her hatred only grew when she read on and realized what he was going to do. What he had done. She was sure if she had eaten in the past day she would have thrown up.

She shut off the hologram with a sickened feeling in the pit of her stomach. She stood again and noticed that they had mostly moved away from the east side of the building.

Seizing the opportunity, she climbed down the side of the building and ran for it, keeping herself to the shadows as she ran through the streets.

She needed to find Vision and maybe Wanda if she could.

She stayed silent, moving as if she were a ghost. It was perfectly natural to her, the silence was something she’d learned to use as a weapon since she was a child. She never thought she’d use it in a situation such as this one, however.

She heard the breaking of glass and immediately moved in the direction of the sound. Whoever made the noise must have been human. 

It didn’t last long enough for it to be a window and it was also much to light of a sound for it to be a normal glass window. Anything smaller and close to the size needed to make the sound would be of any use to a zombie.

She ran silently and pulled one of her handguns before she peeked around the corner of a building to see Wanda and Dazzler with the same man from before everything went to hell “Ash Williams ladies, kicking glass and taking names.”

She rolled her eyes and walked forward “Seriously, it's the apocalypse and you’re still acting like a moron?”

“Ah well I gotta have my fun where I can”

She rolled her eyes again and holstered her gun before she was tackled in a hug by Wanda “I’m so happy you’re not dead.”

She smiled softly and hugged her back “Yeah well, I get the feeling that death is gonna start gunning for me one day cause I keep playing ding dong ditch at their door and they absolutely hate that.”

It took Dazzler a moment to say anything, she seemed to be in shock as she stared at the glass feet of a big bird that Melissa assumed was at one point Howard the duck “I...I don’t understand. Everybody’s turning into zombies and you Ash I thought you were-”

“A dead duck? A victim of fowl play?” Ash quipped

“Him…” she said looking down at the dead body of an Ash Williams look-alike, “I thought you were him…”

Melissa kneeled down and riffled through the pockets of the deadman pulling a brown wallet and going through it “His driver’s license says, Ashely Williams”

“Handsome fella, what a shame.”

“Different universe different Ash,” Wanda mumbled as Melissa handed the wallet to her.

“So the story about deadites destroying the world and you coming from another reality to save the world…” Dazzler said softly

“You really were telling the truth,” Wanda muttered

“Well, at least you get to say that you were right,” Melissa said as she adjusted the loop that went over her middle finger from her long fingerless glove.

“What do you two know about this? I heard that some of the avengers were infected and that they were spreading this.”

“Not some Dazzler, all of them.” Wanda said quietly, tears starting to flow down her cheeks “Colonel America put out an S.O.S. on the Avengers comlink to assemble the entire roster, reserves included. They ended up infecting almost the entire roster, present, and past.”

“How did you two-”

“I made Wanda run,” Melissa said “Then I stayed behind to help with anyone who couldn’t make it on the rescue ships. Of course, that plan was shot when the helicarrier came down.”

Wanda’s eyes widened with horror “It’s gone?…”

She nodded “It fell soon after everyone fell back, based on the files I read it looks like Reed Richards intentionally infected himself and the rest of the Fantastic Four because he had deluded himself into thinking that zombies are the superior species.”

The three of them look at her in shock over the fact that anyone would want to become one of those monsters.

“I…I came looking for you Ash…Your claim that you knew of a book with the power to stop this thing…It was a slim chance but a slim one was better than none at all.” Wanda said as the tears kept flowing down her cheeks as she sunk to the ground with Dazzler by her side “But I’m thinking it’s too late…The end of the world is here.”

“Look, sorry to interrupt your Oprah moment, gal pals, but the end is gonna be here for us sooner if we don’t get a move on.” Ash cut in “There’s a zombie storm god on the prowl for a midnight snack.”

Dazzler quickly pulled Wanda to her feet as they ran forward to the sanctum sanctorum “Come on Wanda. Don’t give up hope yet. If anyone knows where the Necronomicon is it’s Doctor Strange. He’s upstairs, I saw him through the window.”

“Allison, Stephen was aboard the helicarrier. Most of the heroes were gathered there to plan a defense and start a resistance.” Wanda said as she looked back at her.

“So whoever’s inside-”

“Another stinkin’ deadite.”

Melissa stepped forward heating the repulsor ray embedded in her palm to melt the locked door handle. She let the molten metal fall away from her fingers and pushed the door open to see Doctor Druid leaning over the half-eaten body of Wong.

“Alright Zombie scum. Whaddaya have to say for yourself before I blast ya to kingdom come?’ Ash asked as he pulled his shotgun from the sling on his back.

“I…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I got bit earlier today, fighting against the zombies…Tried to use the mystical powers to keep the infection at bay. I came to Stephen in hopes that he could stop it, but he was gone. I didn’t want to hurt Wong…but this hunger is so powerful” He said as his teeth sunk into Wong’s flesh once more “The more I eat the hungrier I get. And I don’t want to eat you, I really don’t. But I’m not sure I have the self-control not to.”

Ash lowered his gun, Melissa, however, kept her’s at the ready. If it came down to Wanda and Alison or Ash and Doctor druid she had already made her choice and it sure as hell wasn’t either of the men. “Listen, buddy, if you can just keep it together for a few minutes. We’re the cavalry and we know exactly how to stop this thing.”

“Y-you do?” he sounded so sincere, it almost made her feel bad for what she planned to do the moment they got the information they needed from him. Almost.

“We need to get to the library in this place,” Ash said looking at the zombified man

“We’re looking for the Necronomicon, is it here?” Melissa asked, ready to pull the trigger at a moment’s notice.

“Upstairs, I think we have it…” he said before he looked to Ash, “You think you can reverse this thing you really mean it?”

“No” Ash stuck his gun to the back of his head and pulled the trigger “Dead is dead. I don’t care what universe you live in.”

The four of them walked past the now lifeless body and up the stairs to the library. “Looks like this section is devoted to the dark arts,” Ash said as he started mumbling the names of a bunch of different books only half of which Melissa recognized.

“But no Necronomicon” Dazzler said sounding rather annoyed as she reached for one of the books.

“Careful,” Ash and Wanda said in unison “Some of them bite.”

Ash grabs a set of tongs and plucked one of the books from the shelves. A white one with yellowed eyes and sharp teeth, he started to interrogate it only to receive an answer he didn’t like: “Get bent flesh bag”

The book was then promptly thrown into the fire.

Another book, a red one with horns, bug-like eyes and perfect teeth is picked up and that one was much more willing to speak.

A little too willing to speak in Melissa’s mind. He gave a whole backstory for the Necronomicon, one that she got bored of listening to halfway through. She didn’t need any of that information.

“Oh just spit it out.” Melissa said an annoyed edge in her voice, “Where is the Necronomicon?”

“Latveria.”

“There wasn’t that simple,” Ash asked as he pushed the book back on the shelf.

“I’ve got a quinjet not far from here. If we can get to it we can be in Latveria in a matter of hours. How’s it look out there, Alison? Coast clear?” Wanda asked her

“My god…It just keeps getting worse. Th-the children.” she whispered her voice trembling

“Kids are going to be in danger Alison.” Melissa said as she switched the safety on her gun off “this is quite literally the apocalypse”

“No, these children aren’t in danger.” She whispered, “they are the danger."

They walk through the building and to the exit where the Quinjet would be “C’mon, the Quinjet is just beyond them. Try not to attract their attention. Maybe they won’t notice us if they’re eating.” Wanda whispered.

“No dice sweetheart.” Ash said as he rubbed his chin “If those freaky little ankle-biters are between us and your ship, we’re gonna need some sort of distraction”

Melissa grabbed a hand grenade from a compartment in her belt before a loud explosion interrupted her revealing a team of five heroes who look a bunch of college kids who should be worried about dating and such. Not saving the world.

“There’s a distraction, let’s get to your ship,” Ash said as the four of them got ready to bolt for the ship.

“Shouldn’t we help them?” Dazzler asked

“No point, it’d be like spittin’ into a hurricane,” he said as the four of them ran to the Quinjet.

Wanda and Melissa made quick work of setting up the Quinjet and taking off leaving the 5 person team behind.

~.~.~.~.~.~

“Ash I am engaged and if you don’t stop trying to flirt with me I will break all your knees at your joints and then leave you for the zoms” Melissa hissed giving him a deathly glare, the kind that if looks could kill she would have killed him ten times over.

“Whatever, your loss toots”

“Call me toots again and I’ll do much worse.”

~.~.~.~.~.~

“So Latveria, Nice place?” Ash asked

“Sure it is, except that its ruler is a bloodthirsty monster bent on taking over the world and the destruction of mankind,” Wanda said pointing at the picture of Dr. Doom on the panel.

“And, uh, how exactly is that different from the rest of the infected super folk?” he asked.

“The difference is, he’s not infected.”

“Not yet, but if that’s any sort of indicator it’s only a matter of time,” Melissa said as she jerked her head towards the castle which was being attacked a zombified giant.  
Wanda sucked air through her teeth making a hissing sound “Which means…we’re the ones who are doomed.”


	5. Witches and Kings

“Miss Maximoff, kindly inform your associate that I am the absolute monarch and lord of Latveria, and if he addresses me again as ‘Yo Threepio,’ ‘hey Tinman’ or ‘Domo arigato mister roboto,’ I will remove his head from his body.” Doctor Doom said as he held Ash up by his neck “Now let us try this again, perhaps you can find a more suitable honorific when addressing Victor Von Doom”

Ash rubbed his neck which was no doubt sore from being held that way. “Take it easy chief, hail to the king whatever,” he muttered.

Melissa rolled her eyes as Doctor Doom deemed his answer to be somewhat acceptable.

“Miss Maximoff, you know the Scarlet Witch, White Widow and Dazzler are always welcome guests in the castle Doomshadt, under any circumstances…But that does not give you license to drag in whatever riffraff you see fit.” Doctor Doom said with a firm but annoyed tone.

“No Lord Doom.” Wanda responded gesturing to Ash “This man, Ashely Williams, has information on what’s behind the Zombie plague he says he can stop it!”

“Is that so? And so you came to Latveria to beg for the assistance of Doom?”

Melissa had to resist the urge to scoff. The only thing she’d beg for, was for him to stop referring to himself in the third person.

“As if, buddy!” Ash cut in rudely, in the kind of way that would get him killed “We just need access to your library and the weird magic books in your collection of supernatural crapola. Five minutes alone with the Necronomicon and I’ll have this zombie business completely sorted out.”

“The Necronomicon has nothing to do with what is happening outside the secured walls of Doomshadt,” Doom said as he lead them away from the throne room “The origin is extraterrestrial, not supernatural. It’s a pan-dimensional virus, a cosmic contagion. Science, not sourcery will be the key to putting an end to it.”

“Please Doom, you have to let us try.” Dazzler begged “Let us at least see the Necronomicon”

“No. You would just be wasting your time. And you’ve already wasted enough of mine.” He said as he turned, giving his doom bots a wave of his hand “Escort him below. Put him in the holding cells…with the others”

“I don’t think so! Get your rusty mitts off me, ya overgrown waffle irons” Ash yelled as he elbowed the doom bots that had grabbed his arms “You bozos don’t have the slightest idea who you’re messing with. I’ve taken on entire armies of deadites single-handedly. You think I’m gonna be stopped by a couple of glorified wind-up toys. You’re lucky they confiscated my boomstick, or I’d be sending you to that great Betamax pile in the sky”

“Enough! I’m surprised that they did not warn you of the dangers of incurring the wrath of Doom, little man. Not to mention the folly of repeatedly incurring it.” he turned away from him rather dramatically “But perhaps a demonstration is in order. You there! What’s going on outside?

Doom pointed at one of the men who was monitoring a camera to the outside “Goliath sir. We’ve repelled the other attackers with Doombots and Doomjets. So far our force field is holding, but the giant shows no sign of relenting his offensive.”

“Good,” Doom said with his arms crossed “Then he serves us the perfect opportunity to illustrate the fate of those who venture on Latverian soil without my welcome.”

The man nodded and pressed a few buttons, firing off missiles that impaled the zombie before they exploded leaving him dead on the ground.

“There, and now” he snapped his fingers “For the final time…Remove Mr. Williams from my sight and you need not be gentle”

The doombot closest to Ash whacked him over the head, knocking him out cold.

“Doom please have mercy on him.” Wanda begged, “He could be the key to-”

“He is the key to nothing and I have taken mercy on him. As I said, he is to be locked below with the others. The other uninfected survivors. I rescued them. Before the infection reached Latveria, I gathered up what of its citizenry I could and brought them here, where they are safe within my impregnable castle. It’s walls defended and secured by my own sorcery and technology.” Doom said with what seemed to be pride “Ironic, isn’t it? How long have I endured the slander of the erroneous label of “Supervillain” when in fact it is I, Doom, who would ultimately turn out to be humanity's savior and perhaps its greatest hero?”

The three women looked at the monitor to see the cells where all the uninfected where being held.

“But, Victor…” Wanda said softly as she looked at the screen “Wh-where are the children? Where are the elderly? I see only people in good health, and they seem to all be-”

“Of breeding age?” Doom cut in “You are correct. Humanity is to be strong if it is to continue. When I rescued I rescued selectively.”

“It’s not enough people.” Melissa said as she looked over the group of rescued people “In order to have enough genetic variety to create a stable population of humans you’d need a group of people at least double this size. Triple would be best.”

He narrowed his eyes under his mask “You dare question-”

“I don’t question, I know.” she said her arms crossed over her chest “I, unlike you, have a doctorate and masters degree. The question of how many people would be needed to create a flourishing human population was my college thesis.”

Doom didn’t say anything to argue against her, what she said would be something to incur his wrath were it said by anyone else. That being said she was too much of a valuable asset for him to want to do anything against her.

“Some ‘hero’ you are.” Dazzler sneered after she listened to what Melissa had to say.

“You want to talk of heroes, Miss Blair? Who do you think hastened humanity’s declines?” Doctor Doom asked “None other than my old foe Reed Richards your do-gooder leader of the so-called Fantastic Four. Did you know he infected himself on purpose? Convinced he was elevating himself into a higher, more efficient life form?”

“They know.” Melissa said, “I told them.”

“Then do not speak to me of heroes. Everything has changed now. Your friends will attack here soon enough. Once their supply of food runs out and they realize the world’s last reserve of living meat is under my roof and under my protection” Doom said before he turned to a long table with a pristine white cloth and huge feast “In the meantime, come with me, and I shall show you the hospitality Doom extends to those with his welcome”

They each sat down at the table as Doom began to regale them with tales of his own self-appointed greatness.

Melissa sat there, swirling a glass of wine in the way someone would while they were at a party they didn’t really want to be at and played with her engagement ring in silence. 

She didn’t eat, she didn’t really need to and after what she’d seen and done in the past forty-eight hours she was sure that her appetite was gone for good.

Wanda had left sometime during the fifth course to go to the restroom. It took her awhile to get back. Too long for her to just have gone to the restroom. But Melissa said nothing, she got the feeling she had freed Ash.

Doom noticed nothing as he was far to busy with his story to tell that she’d been gone for so long.

“Amora has been freed,” Doom said seemingly out of nowhere as he stood. The other three stood and ran out of the room.

They found her with Ash.

Or at least what would have been her.

“ASH. Ash! Oh my god,” Dazzler said with a gasp as she saw Ash standing with a zombified Enchantress.

“What have you done?” Wanda asked with anger laced in her voice.

“Ash, you absolute idiot,” Melissa muttered as she pulled one of her handguns from its holster.

“Take it easy ladies! No need for jealousy. Plenty of ol’ Ash to go around. Hot babe rescuin’ is one of my many talents. You should have figured that out by now.” Ash said holding up his hands defensively his back to Enchantress

“I’ve always been a sucker for a pretty face”


	6. Too Much Panic and Not Enough Disco

“Feed me!” Enchantress growls as Ash walked forward to her much to the dismay of Melissa, Wanda, and Alison.

“Okay…Anything you say my love”

He instead is tackled to the ground by Dazzler “Ash, you idiot! Stay away from her. She’s one of the zombies.”

“Her?”

“That’s the Enchantress. She’s got a mystical ability to seduce any man, make them powerless to her every command, and to see her exactly as she wishes to be seen.” Dazzler scolded.

“You don’t say?” he asked, “In my universe, we call that beer goggles.”

“Course against the fairer sex she doesn’t have the quite the same advantage” She growled as she activated her powers “All I have to do is break her concentration with my dazzling mutant light powers…and she is revealed for what she really is. See?”

Dazzler pointed her finger at Enchantress to accentuate her point only for her to have it bitten off by Enchantress.

“Oh no…”

“Oh no. No no no no” Dazzler whispered, distress filling her voice.

“Get ready to say hello to the new you sister.”

Melissa sighed and aimed her gun at the two of them. There was no helping either of them at that point.

“And now say goodbye,” Doom said coming up behind them and blasting them to where their brains were completely fried “Both of you.”

Melissa lowered her gun as the other two spoke “Doom you cold-hearted sonova-”

“Victor!! Alison wasn’t a zombie yet!” Wanda yelled, clearly upset.

“No, but it was just a matter of time. By killing her, I saved her and likely yourselves as well.”

“He’s right,” Melissa said as she holstered her gun “There would have been no way to save her. There’s no cure and most importantly no time to be able to make one.”

Wanda nodded sadly, her shoulders sinking slightly.

“Of course, this would have not been necessary if you hadn’t so foolishly released the infected Amora,” Doom said his hand lighting up with his magic.

“Hey wait a minute!” Ash objected, his hands up in a defensive position “She looked normal to me. How was I to know she had some mad chanting mojo power.”

“Very true. But I can think of at least one way to ensure you do not vex me again with you impudence and ignorance.”

Both Melissa and Wanda stepped in front of Ash. As much as Melissa hated him he might be important and she wouldn’t be the one to toss away humanity’s last hope.

“Enough Victor! No more killing!” Wanda demanded

“You presume to give Doom orders? Foolish woman, go you imagine I do not know who freed this reckless dolt from his confines.” he growled at the three of them “Stay your tongue Scarlet Witch, lest you inflame my wrath as well. In the grand scheme of things are irrelevant as he.”

“My lord!” one of Doom’s servants ran into the room with an air of urgency

“You dare interrupt Doom?! Is everyone so deep in the grip of fear from cannibal zombies that they risk awakening the terrible fury of the lord of Latveria?!” he demanded as the two women pushed back Ash “Speak lacky as if your life depended on it”

“I-I thought you should know, the infected heroes you warded off earlier with the castles arsenal and defenses have returned,” he said in a trembling voice.

Wanda and Melissa looked at each other, she could see the fear in Wanda’s eyes. It was pure and unfiltered, she feared for her life.

“What?! I thought once they discovered that the castle Doomshadt was impregnable, the infected would have moved on to easier pickings in the Latverian countryside”

“Yes my lord, but they’ve killed everybody in the surrounding countryside. Not to mention the surrounding countries. And even the surrounding continents. So now they’re back, and they’ve brought friends.”

The castle started to shake and crumble around them.

“I thought you said this castle was impregnable chief.”

“There are degrees of impregnable, cretin!”

A rumble rang through the air as the wall in front of the four fell to the ground revealing an assortment of zombified X-Men, many of whom Melissa had seen go back to the now fallen helicarrier.

Doom is quickly wrapped up by Mr. Fantastic as they set to work as pulling his metal suit from his body so they could turn him.

“Pst, ladies, maybe while all eyes are on Doc Doomed we should exit stage left. Quietly. Whaddya think?” Ash asked only to see Melissa taking out zombies left and right with her pocket knife and Wanda on the floor, her back being eaten by the Punisher.

“Remember me, smart guy?” Punisher growled, “You’re next.”

“Ash please…” Wanda begged as Melissa started to push him back and away from the zombies “Find the Necronomicon, put a stop to this plague.”

“I already found the Necronomicon. Its powers are mystical and its control is over the undead. It can’t do anything to help us against an interdimensional infection” Rage filled Melissa’s expression, she only protected him in the hope that humanity would be saved. Now he was useless. “Unless…I got it!”

He ran off, Melissa following close behind. If he didn’t prove himself useful she’d make his end as painful as possible.

They ran straight to the library where Ash pulls a blackened book from a small trash can “You and me ‘Nomicon. We gotta talk.”

_ “Talk? Nothing would amuse me more, to hear the last pathetic mewlings of the failed chosen one and his little wench before they meet their grisly demise.” _ Melissa glared but said nothing. He was a talking book, what would be more torturous to someone than that?  _ “Your wretched end is near and there is no amount of begging and groveling you can do to persuade me to end the suffering and torment that is to be your ultimate fate.” _

“I think you got the wrong idea about exactly which one of us is gonna be doing the begging,” Ash said as he dropped the book on a desk which was most likely Doom’s, “You told me before the zombie plague is a pan-dimensional virus. It doesn’t just infect humans. And when the zombies finally get to us they’re gonna be munching on you too.”

_ “What…What madness do you speak of? What would cannibal zombies want of me, a book?” _

“The plague can infect nonhumans,” Melissa said, having mostly caught onto Ash’s plan “It’s infected gods, anthropomorphic ducks, and aliens. To name a few. And you, are a sentient book made of human blood.”

Ash nodded “You wanna take a chance that you won’t end up the second course when they come around to fill up on corned beef Ash?"

_ “I…I…So what precisely is your plan Ashley Williams?” _

~.~.~.~.~.~

“You’re lucky you got that thing to work with us,” Melissa said as they ran down to the holding cells with the main zombies being distracted by the army of the dead that the Necronomicon had made to rise.

“And why is that?”

“Because if you didn’t I would’ve sliced your tendons, snapped your limbs at the joints and left you for the zoms,” she said in a cold decisive manner.

A guttural laugh emitted from the Necronomicon as they ran _ “I like her.” _

They pull open the door to the holding cells revealing all the people who had been saved by Doctor Doom.

“Come with us, all of you. We’re here to rescue you.” Melissa said in the calm voice that she used whenever she dealt with people stuck in the crossfire of a battle.

They follow, with Melissa at the back to make sure no one is left behind and Ash leading them down the hall at the urging of the Necronomicon.

They enter a room with a white portal that has a slight blue tint to it and see Doom at the control panel making it run.

“Do not tarry. Time grows short…for all of us.”

Ash and Melissa silently walk forward toward Doom “You’re alive…though that may be a bit of an overstatement.”

“No, I have been bitten but the infection has not yet taken hold and while I am still myself I will have my revenge on Richards and deny him and his grotesque cadre the sustenance they so desperately crave,” He said as he watched his people flee into the portal “The change is coming, the hunger is growing. I should eat you Ashley Williams, but since it was you and White Widow who allowed me my revenge, who facilitated the diversion I needed to escape the clutches of the zombies and deliver my subjects to extradimensional sanctuary.”

Doom hit a few buttons on his panel and motioned to the pair of them “Go.”

“Uh sure thing big guy, but won’t all the other zombies follow us and infect other worlds?” Ash asked.

“They cannot follow you. The portal is programmed to reset every five seconds, randomly switching between parallel worlds, different dimensions, timelines, and probabilities.” Doom said as he looked to them “Furthermore I will destroy the apparatus after you transport. You will both have a limited amount of time to settle on a preferred dimension.”

Melissa shook her head “I’m not leaving. Not without my fiance”

“This is your only chance to flee,” Doom said

“I know, but I can’t leave, not when I know that Vision most likely is still alive out there,” she said firmly.

“Your chances of surviving-”

“Are drastically decreased, I know.” she said “But I’m willing to take that chance. Thank you, for your hospitality.”

She looked to Ash for a moment before she turned away to leave “Get out of here.”

She ran out of the room from another exit as she heard the walls behind her come crashing down. 

There was no turning back at that point, even if she wanted to.


	7. Chapter 7

She ran through the halls of the castle and to the courtyard where the Quinjet had been landed when they had first come to Latveria.

Melissa set to work on starting it up so she could leave. She knew she didn’t have long as there was only so much time they would spend fighting Doom.

The jet started with a loud whooshing sound as it took off into the air and away from Latveria.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as set the Quinjet to autopilot as she got out of the pilot's seat and went to the back where she pulled a bed from the wall of the jet and a blanket and pillow from one of the compartments in the floor.

She needed to sleep. It had been over two days since she last slept and she was tired.

Not physically. No, her ‘perfect’ synthetic body wouldn’t allow for that. But she was tired in just about every other way she could be.

She climbed up on the pristine white sheets of the pullout bed, not bothering the get changed or take off her boots or any of her weapons. 

The thick forest green blanket was wrapped around her tightly in an attempt to simulate being held, it wasn’t the same as Vision being there, not by a longshot but it would have to suffice for the time being.

Tears streamed down her face as she curled herself up under the blanket. She had lost so many people in the past days and it hurt.

She needed Vision now more than ever but he wasn’t there. For all she knew, he was dead. Torn apart by desperate hunger driven zombies.

The thought terrified her.

She kept herself wrapped tightly in the blanket as she sobbed her heart out. She had lost almost everyone she cared about and had no idea if Vision was even alive.

It tore her apart in every way imaginable.

She clung to the blanket and sobbed into it until she let the sweet release of sleep take a hold of her, pulling her into a state of unconsciousness that allowed her what little peace that could be given in such a time.

~.~.~.~.~.~

She is woken a few hours later by a sharp beeping noise that was to let her know that she had reached her destination.

She got into the pilot's seat and started to descend for a landing in New York City.

There was a part of her wanted to name it something else. Something more fitting for a city that had fallen to the zombie apocalypse. Either that or something really dumb. It wouldn’t really matter much though, as she might well be the only alive in the whole city.

She landed the Quinjet a good distance away from where she needed to be. She would go the rest of the way on foot, it made more sense than going directly in the jet.

The jet was shut down with a soft whir. It was questionable as to if it were ever to be used again but that wasn’t a question she wanted to think about.

She needed to get to her apartment over in hell’s kitchen, it had everything she would need. Not for a cure, that was hopeless at that point. But to get in contact with any survivors and most importantly Vision.

It was about five minutes or so before she left the jet, she had put the bed back in place and the blanket and pillow back in the compartment in the floor. She had also grabbed any ammo that she could and stashed in all the hidden pockets in her suit. She got the feeling that she would need it.

She left the jet and began to run through the deathly silent streets. She stayed in the shadows to avoid any leftover zombies, she didn’t want to draw any attention to herself.

She made it to her hell’s kitchen apartment, a part of her hoped that there would be someone else there, the more rational part of her knew that it wouldn’t be the case.

The cheap plywood door was busted open no doubt by the zombies in search of a living human.

She reached through the hole in the door and unlocked it from the inside before she walked inside, the world may have gone to crap but her standards did not.

A hammer and a few basic tools were kept hidden under the kitchen sink, luckily for her, they weren’t taken on otherwise. She grabbed the hammer and tapped the pins which kept the hinges in place and worked on removing the door. She needed to change the doors out, not for any actual protection but rather for a better sense of comfort.

She finished changing the front door with the closet door and shut it with a small flourish. It was an objectively small task that she’d done and was a small victory but it was a victory nonetheless.

She walked into her apartment and took in a deep breath. It smelled musty and like mothballs, it had been so long since she’d been there. She hadn’t been there since before she was an avenger and it was very obvious.

She walked through the apartment in silence and straight to the closet of the master bedroom. 

A small smile fell on her lips when she saw the dusty ace and bi pride flags that hung above on the wall above her bed. They were gifts from her old college roommate when she had finally come to terms with her romantic and sexual orientation.

Growing up in the time period she did made it hard for her but her roommate, Addy, was a big help. Though, as much as she had helped her in her college years, Melissa doubted it mattered now.

She went into the closet and pushed aside an assortment of dresses and suits before she removed the false wall that was behind them.

Behind the false wall was a fairly high tech lab, it used to be an apartment. The one behind her own to be exact. She had bought it and made it so the only way in was through the closet door.

She made quick work of setting up the generators to get things in the lab up and running.

It took a few minutes before the lab came back to life but when it did she smiled like a child in a candy store.

It was time to get to work.


	8. Vibranium and Pity Parties

Melissa gazed into her dusty mirror with a forlorn expression.

She hated the way she looked, now more than ever.

Dried tear tracks, brain matter, and blood cover her face almost artfully.

By god did she hate it.

She peeled her black suit off her tired body and stripped it of all the little gadgets and weapons before she threw it into the washer that she had made work with a little help from the instruction manual.

Her feet made no sound as she walked into the bathroom in the master bedroom and turned on the shower. She removed her underclothes and tossed them into the basket before she stepped into the piping hot shower.

She let her shoulders slump as the boiling hot water hit her blue skin. Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment before she grabbed the soap and scrubbed the blood, brain matter and tears away with such ferocity that if she were human she would have rubbed her skin raw.

Once she was satisfied that she was free of all the gore that had covered her she sat down and let the water just fall on her.

It had been a little over a week since she had arrived in New York and at least two since she had last seen Vision.

Throughout the week she had managed to set up a radio-based communications system to intercept signals and only send them out on a select channel.

The one only her and Vision used.

And with every passing day, she lost more and more hope of ever seeing him again alive and it crushed her.

She stood and turned off the water having finished her personal pity party.

She stepped out of the shower and got dressed in an oversized hoodie and pair of spandex shorts she hadn’t worn those clothes since she was human. It was almost surreal.

She went back to the lab, her daily routine only being slightly disturbed by her pity party. The machines hadn’t done anything out of the normal in her time in the shower.

It was almost depressing to her how nothing had happened during her time away.

She plopped down into the rolling chair that rested in the middle of the lab. She needed to wait until her suit was done before she’d go back outside like she needed to.

She had another spare suit but it was her white one that she hadn’t worn since she was human and part of the KGB. Sure they didn’t exist anymore and it wasn’t like anyone would care to accuse her of having loyalty to Russia but it was more about what it symbolized to her than anything else.

That and it had long sleeves.

She had long since stopped being a fan of having suits with sleeves, much too restrictive in her opinion.

So she just had to wait.

A little while later she was suited up and ready to go.

She wouldn’t be too long. At least that was the plan anyway.

It was just a recon mission to see approximately how many zombies were in the area and to see if there were any signs of survivors.

Her suit and overall appearance was pristine, at least that was a little normal, Tony couldn’t stand for any of them to have less than perfect suits and such when going into any situation. Call it a pet peeve of his.

She left the relative safety of her apartment through the fire escape, it would be easier for her to move through the alleyways as they were more sheltered plus it meant a smaller place meant that if attacked the flow of zombies would be much easier to manage than if she were out in the open.

So she kept to alleyways and shadows.

This worked until she ran into something she didn’t want to see. Bucky’s dead body.

She looked around the area, surveying it to see what happened.

It looked like he was killed after he’d been turned as his head was mostly destroyed. One of his guns, a sniper rifle, lay useless on the ground. She suspected he had ditched it once he’d fully turned. As far as she’d seen none of the zombies used guns.

She picked it up and slung the strap across her body. She knew she should probably feel bad for taking it, they were friends after all, but she didn’t. It wasn’t exactly like he’d be using it.

She kept moving in silence she didn’t see much of anything until she got to the downtown area.

It was crawling with the living dead. She had no doubt that any survivors in that area had been turned into their lunch.

A soft sigh was pulled from her lips before she climbed up another fire escape and went inside a window.

It was an old building that was abandoned long before the zombie apocalypse had taken over.

She walked through it in silence, she needed to keep a low profile especially here.

The building creaked in that ominous sort of horror movie way, it didn’t bother her as it would help disguise her location if one of them tried to attack her.

Unfortunately, it also meant that it would most likely disguise their whereabouts as well but that was just a chance she would have to take.

She kept moving so she could get to the other side of the building, she knew that she needed to keep moving from building to building to avoid being detected.

A much louder creak than the ones she was making rang through the building stopping Melissa in her tracks.

She wasn’t alone.

She turned, handgun at the ready, only to see the decaying metal skin of Colossus.

“Shit.”

He ran forward and ran to grab her before he stopped short upon seeing her blue skin.

“White Widow?”

“Yeah, I suggest you stand down buddy,” She said giving a little shake of her gun “I’m not afraid to shoot, a fair amount of your buddies found that out the hard way.

He growled, “You haven't learned the hunger gospel, my comrade.”

“I’ve seen what it’s done to my friends.” she said, “believe it or not, but I'm not a fan.”

He snarled in what seemed like anger, perhaps it was from her insulting his ‘gospel’, however, the why of the situation didn’t matter, what mattered was that he was attacking her, viciously.

She twisted away from Colossus but unfortunately, she wasn’t fast enough, as his teeth sunk into her synthetic skin tearing it away leaving a ragged bite mark on her bicep that she was sure would hurt like hell if she could feel pain.

He spat out the piece of skin, disgusted with the way it tasted “Metal, disgusting.”

“What did you think I would taste like!? Strawberries and cream?!” she snapped back as she dodged another one of his attacks.

“Doesn’t matter.”

“You don’t want to do this Piotr,” Melissa said as she pulled her gun from its holster. She knew for a fact that it wouldn’t do anything in terms of killing him but it would make a decent diversion “You can’t turn me and eating me will be futile you’ve learned that first hand.”

He said nothing and snarled as he lunged forward trying to bite at her throat.

“No thanks.” She said as she twisted away from him, making him fall to the ground. This move had come in handy of late. “I’m a little busy looking for someone.”

“Who? Your precious Vision?” A guttural, spine chilling laugh tore its way from his throat “We killed him! I tore him apart myself! Such a shame that he couldn’t see the gospel.”

“You did what?” she growled lowly. It was a dangerous growl the kind that you would hear come from a predator right before they tore you to bits and pieces.

He kept laughing as if it were the funniest thing he’d heard in the whole wide dead world. “He’s gone! Scrap metal at best!”

Melissa’s silver eyes hardened as she put her gun back in its holster, “You’re gonna wish you hadn’t said that.”

She pulled her favorite knife from her boot with a small but noticeable flourish. Most knives wouldn’t do anything against Colossus, however, this was not like most knives. It was made of vibranium.

“Any last words?” she asked rhetorically as she ran forward and plunged her knife into his head as he tried to bite her by any means possible.

It wasn’t a killing blow.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

She scowled as she removed the knife from his head and pushed him to the ground. 

She moved so she knelt, one knee on the ground and one knee pinning his chest to the ground as she plunged it back in his head. Over and over and over again.

She knew that he couldn’t feel any pain but she desperately wished that he could.

She stabbed his head over and over until his skin had turned back into skin and his skull wasn’t much more than mush.

She stood and gave his body a kick that was probably harder than it should’ve been before she turned and left.

Her recon mission was over.


	9. Mourning and Revenge

She walked into her apartment, not bothering to even hide where she was from the zombies.

If they found her they found her it was their funeral.

Or hers.

Depended on how things panned out.

Though she got the feeling that if they found her now all the anger pumping through her veins would ensure her victory.

She kicked the door closed and locked it behind her before she went to the bathroom.

The bite on her bicep was rather nasty, Colossus didn’t do any damage to her actual internal mechanisms, which was lucky for her as she most likely wouldn’t have been able to repair such damage on her own.

The blue skin was ripped away, revealing the blackened synthetic muscle underneath it would have to be repaired.

She grabbed her vibranium knife from her boot and held it against the area trying to see if it would be enough metal.

It wasn’t.

She knew she didn’t have any vibranium on hand beside the knife and even then she would hate to have to destroy it.

She gave an annoyed sigh before she left the bathroom she would need to go to Wakanda for the materials she would need to repair herself.

~.~.~.~.~.~

She closed the door behind her as carried a few sheets sheet of metal into her apartment, it was more than she needed but it was better to have more and not need it than to not have enough and need it.

She got to work on heating a forge like area in her lab. It was meant to heat chemicals and such but it would do the same for the metal.

She grabbed the tools she would need before she found an old video recorder that was covered in dust.

“You’re a long way from your time…” she muttered as she wiped the dust off the camera “I suppose I could make some use of this.”

She looked to the heating forge seeing that it was the right temperature and set the vibranium to melt, then started to set up the camera on the tripod that she found with it.

“Hello…this is video one of…I dunno really.” she gave a bitter, humorless laugh “I may well be one of the last living beings on earth. I haven’t seen any truly living beings in over a week.”

She sighed and ran her fingers through her now loose hair “Vision is dead…apparently, Colossus ripped him apart. God, I wish I could tell him that I loved him one more time…” she muttered as tears fell from her eyes “I’ve lost everyone now…in some sick sort of way, I think I deserve this.”

She let out a shuddering breath and wrapped her arms around herself “I want to say things will get better but really? They won’t…If anyone happens to find this, chances are I’ll just have moved on from this area. It’s not exactly like I can die or be turned. It’s not like I’m human.”

The steady blinking of the red light comes to a halt as the battery inside died. She had kinda figured it wouldn’t last long.

It took a few hours before the metal was ready. It had to be heated to a certain temperature or else it wouldn’t cool down the way she needed it to.

She picked up the container with the molten vibranium in it and carefully poured it where the missing skin was on her left arm, all the while cursing the fact that she was a natural lefty.

She watched as it seemed to naturally bond to her exposed machinery, she was counting on it to happen or else it would have ended very differently and most likely very badly.

She lay her head against the desk and closed her eyes, making sure her arm was perfectly still.

It didn’t take too long for it to cool down and harden, conforming to the bite on her arm almost perfectly. It was a lot smoother than her synthetic skin but that was okay, it didn’t matter. She would be the only one to ever touch it.

She stood and took apart the rifle that she had taken from Bucky.

It didn’t have many bullets missing from the clip, it meant that Bucky had probably been bitten early into the spread of the plague.

Poor Bastard didn’t have a chance.

She put it back together before she put everything she had used to repair herself away and left the lab.

The gun was strapped to her back again and she left the apartment building.

Her washed-out-teal hair fluttered in the wind as she stood on the roof of the building and let her eyes flicker over the zombies that were once her teammates.

Those monsters took everything from her.

And now, she planned to return the favor.


	10. Less Depresso and More Espresso

Gunshots rang through the air as they hit their targets.

It was easy for Melissa, killing was what she was built to do. She was in her element.

It had been 7 months since humanity fell and it was clear that the zombies were getting desperate for food. They’d run out of the easily findable humans about 2 days ago.

They’d tried to come into her apartment once or twice during that time.

All of them learned not to do that the hard way.

She dropped the clip, reloaded the gun, and continued on her killing spree. They were all mostly low-level villains, the kind that Spiderman used to deal with.

A tiny smirk fell on her dark blue coated lips as she shot the zombies with Bucky’s sniper rifle. 

They didn’t stand a chance.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Two and a half years after humanity fell and Melissa sat in her swivel chair, blowing a bubble in her watermelon gum.

She leaned her head back in what would be a very uncomfortable position with her feet propped up on a desk and listened to the crooning of the, probably, long-dead Brendan Urie.

Her eyes were closed as she twisted in the chair, all the while lightly singing the lyrics to Death of a Bachelor.

There wasn’t anything more for her to do for the day, she’d already done her, mostly, daily killing spree through the city and beyond that her days were empty.

The proximity sensor went off making the panel which was under her fingertips buzz, shortly after that the doorbell rang.

She paused her song, which had switched from Death of a Bachelor to Crazy=Genius, and looked at the monitor to see a non-zombified Magneto on her doorstep.

She jolted upright in shock, she hadn’t seen a living being since Latveria and now there was a living breathing Magneto.

A gun was loaded with rubber bullets in lighting speed, there were no visible bites but she didn’t want to take any chances.

She ran to the door and she pressed the button on the intercom “Magneto?”

“Yes, it’s me, White Widow.”

“You bit?”

“No, I have too many people to care for to let that happen.”

She waited a moment, almost as if savoring the words that he had said before she undid the locks and pulled him in the apartment. He was the first living person she’d seen in over two years, she wasn’t about to let him die just there.

“You survived, how?”

“I got lucky I suppose.”

She nodded slowly as she locked all the locks on the door again, “You said you have people to care for?”

He nodded “I have a group of 3 people, they’re the reason I’m here now.”

She raised an eyebrow, “You must be incredibly desperate to come to me for help.”

He nodded again “I am. You’re a chemist and there’s a girl, her name is Mindy, she’s diabetic but we can no longer find the insulin she needs to survive.”

“So you want me to make it?”

“If it’s possible, yes”

She thought for a moment, “Do you have a sample of it with you? Because if not I won’t be able to replicate it.”

He took a small vile that had yet to be punctured with a needle and gave it to her at which point she held it up to the light and gave a little nod “Come back this time tomorrow and I’ll have a new supply ready.”

“What is it you want in return?”

“Nothing,” she said as she set the vile on the counter closest to them “Just keep those people safe.”

~.~.~.~.~.~

It had become a routine, everyday insulin was made, and every day it was picked up.

Those exchanges often happened in silence, it was easy for them to keep that mutual silence.

The simple act of knowing that they weren’t alone, and would come to the other’s aid if necessary was a comfort that she doubted anyone else in that world had.

She checked the time and frowned, Magneto was a great many things and luckily for her punctual was one of them.

Something was wrong, she could feel it. He wouldn’t be late under any circumstances.

She slung Bucky’s rifle over her head and shoulder and left the apartment with the insulin hidden in one of the pockets of her suit.

There was a moment of hesitation before she left the place, she had taken to making gadgets to fill her free time and she kinda wanted to see if she got the chance to test it out. It takes a moment for her to deliberate but she eventually picks up a set of poker chip-sized disks and sticks them into her belt and ran out.

She saw the zombies swarming and trying to attack a man in a blue suit. Her mind started to run at a million miles an hour but, there was one question that kept popping up.

Was he alive? 

Her and Magneto where the only ones left with any non-human abilities but here this man was stretching and contorting his body just like Reed Richards.

She ran through several buildings, jumping between them to get closer to the man.

If he didn’t get rescued soon he’d be lunch for hundreds of Zombies.

She spotted Magneto and smiled slightly, it was clear that he had seen the same thing she had and she jumped down to join him.

“Need some backup?”

“That would be preferable”

She nodded and moved the rifle so it was better placed on her back and glanced up to see the myriad of cars and a gasoline truck floating in the air ready to drop at a second’s notice “Shall we?”

He didn’t respond and let the tanker drop before the other cars followed suit making a rather big explosion. It wasn’t big enough to kill the man trying to flee the zombies but it was big enough to save him.

Magneto flew down to the ground gracefully while Melissa just jumped off the building. It wasn’t a skyscraper and she’s learned the annoying way that jumping off a 10 story of so building would just feel weird at worst.

The man lay on the ground and tried to crawl away from Magneto as he held his hand out to him.

“Come with us.” he said in a gentle but firm voice as the young man looked up at the two of them “I know you’re scared but you have nothing to fear, right now we are the only hope you have.”

He took the older man’s hand and let himself be helped up as the zombies started to regroup to attack again.

“You two get a head start,” Melissa said as she took the two disks from her belt and stuck them to the back of her hands. 

It took a moment but the two disks expanded to a set of metal gauntlets that looked a lot like a cage that surrounded her fist and halfway up her lower arm. “ I’ll hold them off”

Magnito nodded and started to lead the other man away as she turned to the zombies with a grin on her face.

“Move White Widow.” Reed Richards growled as he stepped forward “Or we will make you.”

“Ya know what’s funny?” she smirked as she procrastinated, “You think you’ve elevated yourself to the highest form of being but you’re wrong.”

“I can't be wrong.”

“Oh, but you are. Because you forgot about one thing, or rather person.”

“And who would that be?”

“Me.”


	11. Vodka and Dimension Travels

A smirk spread across her face and she shoved her fists against the ground as a seismic wave emitted from her gauntlets.

The ground in front of her shook and shuddered violently before it started to rip itself up in a concentrated earthquake that destroyed the street and buildings in front of her.

The gauntlets sparked and short-circuited as they gave out. 

She glanced at the zombies who were all disoriented and trying to get a grip on the situation.

A small click is heard as the gauntlets are released from her arms, they were stuck in the ground but that was okay, she didn’t need them anyway.

She stood and ran, zig-zagging in between the buildings and debris to get to the small sanctuary that was hidden from the zombies.

It didn’t take her too long to be able to lose the zombies in the messed up concrete jungle and catch up to Magneto and the unnamed man.

The man nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw her in his peripheral vision “Oh god, I thought you were one of the zombies.”

She shook her head and spoke in a deadpan voice “Nope just a synthezoid.”

He nodded and looked forward towards Magneto. She looked at him her face blank, he looked familiar before but she couldn’t figure out why then. But now she realized why he was as familiar as he was.

He was a spitting image of Reed Richards.

“Is your name Reed Richards by any chance?”

He was stunned for a moment as they ran behind Magneto “Yes…”

She nodded “Lemme guess, alternate universe?”

He nodded in response, “Yeah, I was duped by…me” he said sounding a bit ashamed at the end of his sentence “How did you figure it out?”

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,” She said with a shrug.

“Sherlock Holmes?”

“And Star Trek.”

He nodded and looked forward again “How much further Magneto.”

“Just another few hundred yards,” he responded as they moved through an old freight station.

“Are you two really the last people in the world who haven’t been infected.” Reed 2.0 asked

“No, there are others here too, but we’re the last ones with any sort of nonhuman enhancements.” Magneto said as he lifted the metal which protected the railway station “Until you came along of course.”

They went inside as he pulled the metal back over the opening as if it had never been moved in the first place “I fashioned this refuge out of a railway tunnel. It’s not perfect by any means, but there's lighting and toilet facilities and a place where we can store our food.”

“And the infected don’t know you’re hiding down here?”

“Not yet. But they will. We’ve had to move several times and one time they found us and murdered almost half of our little group” Magneto said as he took his helmet off “The remaining few are really quite resolute that they shan’t end up in the bellies of a superhero like like their missing friends and loved ones.”

“How long have you been living like this? When did all this actually happen.”

“Oh, a year maybe two?” Magneto said as the three of them walked through the tunnel.

“Two and a half.” Melissa said, “It’s been two and a half years, I’ve kept careful count.”

Reed fell into a shocked silence as they approached the three survivors who were in the tunnel.

“Don’t worry everyone” Magneto said “It’s only me and Melissa…and we’ve found a friend”

“Magneto are you crazy!” Danny, a red-haired man with broad shoulders and a bit of a beard, yelled out as he jumped to his feet.

“He’s a superhero. He’ll be infected.” Kelly, a former policewoman with dark hair, snapped as she held her handgun up to Reed’s head.

“This young man is no more infected than you or I, Kelly. So you can put away your gun.” Magneto said sternly “I’ve told you a million times it’s useless against most super people anyway.”

“I’m really not infected, honest. A bunch of them tried to bite me, but none of them actually broke skin.” Reed said trying to calm her.

“And if he even looks like he’s going to turn I’ll put him down myself,” Melissa said that prompted Kelly to lower her gun. They both knew that she would do it without hesitation.

“Reed, I’d like you to meet Danny and Mindy Glidewell. Danny was an insurance agent and Mindy is his daughter. She’s a diabetic, and the reason we got in contact with Melissa. She has a doctorate in chemistry and was able to make the much-needed insulin”

“Do you have it?” Danny asked, his face showing clear distress

Melissa gave a nod and handed him the vials of insulin, needles, and some blood sugar test strips “Here I got it all made up before we ran into Reed, I also salvaged some test strips from an old pharmacy”

Danny gave a grateful smile as he took the stuff from her “Thank you so much.”

“No problem,” she said giving him a soft smile, she had grown to like Danny and his daughter over the time that she had been acquainted with the small group. Kelly was an acquired taste so to speak but they got along fine.

“Aren’t you the leader of the brotherhood of mutants here?” Reed asked Magneto “Aren’t you supposed to hate normal people?”

“Oh, the irony of this situation is not entirely lost upon me. But the end of the world is a great leveler. Beggars can’t be choosers when you’re down to the last few people alive.”

“Where did you come from kid?” Danny asked the very young Reed “You come from upstate? I got a brother up in Woodstock, but I don’t know if you heard anything.”

“Sorry, I haven’t a clue what’s happening up there”

“Do you have anything to do with the other Reed Richards, the one from the Fantastic Four?”

“I was wondering the same thing.” Magneto said looking at him “Are you a relative of some kind?”

“No, not a relative. In fact, this is gonna sound a little weird…” he said as he rubbed the back of his head “But I’m his counterpart from a parallel reality and this world’s Fantastic Four kind of tricked me into coming here.”

“What’s he talking about. I don’t know what any of that means.” Kelly muttered.

“Ever see Rick and Morty?” Melissa asked

“Yeah, only a few episodes though…”

“Well, ya know how they have that portal gun? Takes them to other dimensions and stuff. It’s based off the many-worlds interpretation which is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that says that the universal wavefunction is objectively real and that there is no wave function collapse. That means that all possible outcomes of quantum measurements are realized in one universe or another.”

“English?”

“Infinite worlds infinite possibilities.”

“That is all well and good.” Magneto said “But are you saying that you opened up a gateway from our world to yours? That would mean that you’ve given the infected a means of reaching a neighboring reality.”

“Oh my god, you’re right.” Reed whispered horror written on his face “They gave me those designs so I could make my way here, but there’s no reason it wouldn’t work the other way too. We have to get to the Baxter Building. We have to stop them from using that bridge I opened up.”

“Oh my dear Reed, it’s much too late. Don’t you understand? Your world is already dead.”


	12. Shoot to Thrill and Play to Kill

“Eric?”

“Yes, Melissa?”

“Can I ask you something…about the first 48 hours?”

He nodded and looked at her “Ask away.”

“Did you see what happened to Vision?” she asked, her eyes filled with tears, her elbows were on the rusted metal table as she rested her lips against her folded hands “I haven’t seen him since a little before you called for us to retreat to the helicarrier…I heard, from Colossus, that he was torn apart…did-did you see it happen?”

He looked at her, sympathy written on his face as he sat down on the chair across from her. 

He could see her strength, crumbling before his very eyes. He knew her well, as well someone who wasn’t a significant other could know a person like her. They hadn’t been friends before, they’d crossed paths many times before, yes, but they were almost always on the opposite side of the fight.

But they weren’t exactly friends at that time either. They were more like allies forged by necessity. 

A necessity to survive and a necessity to do something other than just exist.

“No,” he said as he looked at her “the last time I saw him was when the survivors had to abandon the helicarrier”

She nodded slowly as tears started to stream down her face. There was a very, very select few who had seen her cry. Vision, Tony, Natasha, and now him.

“Ya know…I buried Natasha, found her body. Gave her a proper burial.” she shuddered as she tried desperately to keep a sob from tearing itself from her throat “I can’t do that. How fucked up and pathetic is that? That I can’t even give the person I love most in the universe a proper burial. It's the least I could do and I can’t even gather the fucking strength to do it.”

He stayed silent, not knowing what to say to her, they’d both been through a lot in their lifetime, that was a trait they shared, and he could vividly remember the pain of losing his wife, Magda, there was no doubt in his mind that she was going through the very same pain.

It took him a few minutes before he finally spoke up “There is always hope.”

~.~.~.~.~.~

“I can’t believe you’re actually going through this Magneto,” Kelly said as she sat with her back against one of the walls “It’s suicide. The second we show we show our faces out there the infected are gonna be over us like a rash.”

“Just a chance we have to take Kelly. Young Reed has opened up a portal between this world and his home dimension” he said, “Our lives mean nothing compared to the people who’ll die if one of these things make it through.”

“What are you talking about? Where the hell do you get off saying our lives mean nothing.” Danny demanded as Melissa quirked an eyebrow.

“Excuse me?”

“My daughter’s fifteen years old. She’s my number one priority.” He snapped “You go play the hero if you really want to, but my first duty is to Mindy and I’m not going to risk her life for a bunch of people who are probably dead already.”

“What’s the alternative dad?! Stay locked up in a train station for the rest of our lives? There’s a chance that the infected could kill Melissa at any moment leaving me without any insulin and we’re living on potato chips and soda. If this is surviving, I’d rather be dead.”

“I don’t plan on dying anytime soon.” Melissa said as she finished pulling back the top half of her hair “But she’s right, I’m the only living chemist you’re gonna find and if something happens to me you’re up shits creek without a paddle. Moreover, that portal could be a way out of here, away from the infected.”

“It’s no use.” Reed said as he came back to the group, his body was disfigured for a moment before he pulled himself back to his real form “There must be dozens of them out there and they’ve got every route covered.”

“I can’t believe we never thought of this.” Magneto said “Reaching the Baxter Building wouldn’t just stop the infected getting through. It would give us a chance to get out of here. We could take refuge in Reed’s home dimension.”

“But he said they’ve got the whole place surrounded” Danny objected slightly.

“Not through the subway system.” Reed said as he put the blueprints he’d picked up on a makeshift table “And even if they are down there, the confined space would make it easier to fight.”

“As long as we don’t get surrounded we’ll be fine.” Melissa said as she loaded the magazine for Bucky’s gun “If we do, I’ll probably be the only one walking away from it.”

Reed nodded “What’s the nearest station to the Baxter Building, Kelly? You know the network right? Is it-”

The structure around the six of them shook and shuddered causing Melissa to immediately move into a battle stance.

“What was that?” Danny whispered, the fear in his voice evident.

The concrete structure that protected them from the zombies outside gave way, crumbling as a team of zombified heroes led by Thor “Wolverine was right. They’re squashed up in here like sardines!”

“Duck!!” Magneto yelled out as he pulled a train towards the former heroes.

They were ran over but it didn’t exactly take long for them to start to get back up.

Melissa growled lightly and grabbed a handful of widow bites from her belt and tossed them at the train. Metal was such a wonderful conductor.

“Move quickly!” Reed called out as the others were pushed into the subway station “We’ve got three good escape routes out of this place. This is nothing we haven’t faced before.”

Mindy gave a quizzical look to Melissa as they ran, “Why did you do that?”

“The metal of the train is a great conductor and surprisingly so is the human body even a dead one.” she said as she ran, making sure that Mindy and the others were in front of her “It causes involuntary muscle spasms, it’ll slow them down for a little while but not forever so keep moving.”

They made it to the closest exit to the Baxter Building without any issues, they opened up the door only for them to be confronted with the hundreds of the zombified heroes who had yet to be killed.

Mindy screamed as she saw all of them the fear in her expression evident as Melissa pushed her behind the group and stood in the front with Magneto, Kelly, and Reed.

“I’m not gonna lie to you, this will be difficult,” Magneto said as they readied themselves for a rather brutal fight.

That was until all of them started to scream about their sight, or more accurately their lack thereof.

“They’ve all gone blind.” Danny hissed as he held Mindy to him. 

“What did you do Reed? Is this another one of your powers?” Magneto asked as they all looked around to see the blinded zombies.

“Why do people just assume Reed’s the smart one?” a non-zombified and much younger Sue Storm, who was leading the similarly alive Fantastic Four, asked, “Can he make optic nerves invisible?”

“Wait a minute is this the good Fantastic Four?” Mindy asked.

“Nah we’re in here saving your butt because we’re extremely evil.” the Thing said with an air of sarcasm.

“Burn us a path to the Baxter Building, Johnny.” Sue ordered, “I can only keep them blinded for a minute or two.”

He nodded and burnt a pathway that kept most of the zombies away from them. 

Most.

“It ain’t much further, it’s a few yards from here,” Kelly said as the Hulk jumped and landed in front of them, ready to tear them to bits.

“Little people not going anywhere. Hulk gonna peel the flesh from their bones!!”

“Don’t worry,” Magneto said I’ve handled this thing a couple of times before. It’s surprisingly resilient but…”

“Step aside dude.” The Thing said as he pushed him out of the way.

They attack each other and the Thing lands a powerful double uppercut knocking the Hulk out cold. “Now let’s stop wasting time and get in here, huh?”

The Thing grabbed a semi-truck and threw it at the Baxter Building breaking it open like an egg.

Melissa rolled her eyes and ran inside with the others.

“Never heard of a door, jackass?” Reed said

“Aw, man. Now I just feel stupid.”

“What floor was it on? Floor fifty-seven?” Johnny asked Sue as he got ready to fly upward.

“Fifty-seven”

“You sure you can carry all seven of them?”

“Piece of cake.” She said as she created a platform out of a forcefield to carry them all on “Now hurry up before the bad guys get here.”

Johnny nodded and went straight up, melting a path for them.

“Magneto? Melissa?” Mindy asked as they went up on the forcefield

“Relax, they’re superheroes.”

Melissa gave a confirming nod as they landed on the fifty-seventh floor.

“Great. Power’s down.” Reed said with annoyance “Magneto, I need you to generate and alternative electrical supply. How quickly could you set something like this up without blowing all the fuses.”

“Thirty seconds. Sixty seconds at most but they’re outside now Reed… I can create a magnetic shield, but it won’t keep them back for any length of time.”

“Coordinates are set.” Reed said as the ushered the group onto the teleporter “Everybody stand close together and take off any jewelry. Stuff like rings and watches in particular. They just interfere with the equipment.”

“Magneto, Melissa? What are you doing?” Danny said with a sense of urgency “Hurry up.”

“I can’t I’ve just realized I need to stay behind,” Magneto said.

“What?”

“Somebody has to stay here and destroy the machine or they’ll find a way to follow us through,” Magneto said.

“It’s a two-person job.” Melissa said simply, “It makes the most sense that I stay behind too. I have a higher chance of surviving than anyone else here.”

“I don’t want to die any more than you do and a highly doubt Melissa wants to be resigned to being the only living being on this world,” Magneto said “We just happen to be the ones with the ability to destroy it and stop them from getting a chance to rebuild the damn thing”

“There has to be another way”

“There is.” Melissa said “But you don’t have the time. You need to leave while you still can.”

“He’s right, it’s the only way,” Sue said softly

“Goodbye Mindy, be good.” Magneto turned to Melissa with a little smile on his face, it was fake and Melissa knew it but she didn’t want Mindy to be upset so she simply smiled back “Ready?”

“Ready.” Melissa said as she powered up her repulsor ray before she looked at him and gave him a smile that was real this time “There’s always hope.”

He smiled back and nodded “Yes, there is.”

There was a bright light as the group left and the transporter was destroyed in an explosion that encapsulated the whole top of the Baxter Building.

Throwing Melissa and Magneto back and away from the building as well as away from each other.

Melissa had hope.

But she had little hope of seeing Magneto alive again.


	13. Explosions and Feasts

Melissa managed to keep herself from falling the fifty-seven floors from the Baxter Building by using her grappling hook which Tony had installed to her suit years before.

She had objected at the time, now she couldn’t be more thankful.

Now she stood, on the top of a five-story building as she waited for the rush of zombies to subside.

It didn’t take long,

But something told her that it wasn’t for the best.

She climbed down from the building and started on her search for Magneto. She wanted to hope that he had survived.

That hope was quickly squashed when she saw ripped remains of red and purple fabric and a very distinct red and purple helmet dented and covered in blood on the ground.

She sighed softly and picked up the helmet with great care.

It was clear that he was dead and it was even more clear to her how he had died.

She walked in silence to the outer edge of the city, where she had buried Natasha.

Her grave was under a tree, marked by a grey headstone with her name carved into it.

She touched the stone with the tips of her fingers before she set the bloody helmet to the right of the grave “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”

She stood and walked away from the graves, without a look back. She knew that she would break down if she did.

For her, it was back to her life of silence and loneliness.

She could only wish that Magneto was right about there being hope.

~.~.~.~.~.~

The sun shone through the windows, if any birds were alive they’d be chirping, and a light breeze blew through her apartment.

And the planet-eating Galactus had shown up with the intent to consume the earth.

She found it was ironic really.

She had survived being eaten by one thing only to end up being eaten by another.

Fate really was a cruel mistress.

She lay on her bed wearing an all-black outfit consisting of a tank top that hugged her frame and a pair of spandex short-shorts while curled up in a myriad of fluffy blankets.

She might be eaten alive but she was not about to be eaten while she was uncomfortable.

It was the one thing she would not allow.

The blankets were wrapped around her tightly as a few stray tears fell down her face. 

She wasn’t crying for herself.

No, she accepted that she was living on borrowed time long before the infected became the biggest threat.

She cried because she didn’t have the chance the tell Vision that she loved him, at least once more.

At the very least, there was a good chance of them being together. In the end.

She closed her silver eyes and let sleep pull her into its peaceful embrace as she accepted her untimely fate.

~.~.~.~.~.~

She woke up the next day and much to her surprise, she wasn't dead.

She unrolled herself from her blanket cocoon and went to the window to see the top part of the purplish-red helmet that belonged to the world eater.

She made quick work of getting ready to leave the apartment, her curiosity had overrun her desire to stay inside.

The wind whipped through the loose bottom half of her hair as she stood and watched as the zombified heroes ate the, most likely, still warm corpse of Galactus. All the while they were surrounded by a myriad of dead and decaying bodies. They had probably fought over who would get to eat the giant.

It really was an eat or be eaten world.

It was funny to her really, she watched entrails and blood splatter everywhere as her former friends ate someone.

And yet she couldn’t find it in herself to give a crap.

She supposed that this world had hardened her beyond what she had been already. It was a bit of a scary thought really. She should care, she knew that she was supposed to but she didn’t.

If anyone else was there she was sure that they would be rather concerned for her. 

But there wasn’t

She moved away from their feast, not wanting to be seen by them. She may not have cared about them eating Galactus but the last thing she wanted was to be a target for them.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Her eyes were cast up to the sky as she lay on the roof of her apartment building, the end of the world had taken away many things from her but the stars were not one of them.

She suspected they looked even better now that there was nobody to make any more pollution.

She watched the stars with a soft smile.

And she watched as a group of five, left the atmosphere and the earth as a whole probably in the search for food.

None of those poor bastards on any other planet stood a chance.

There was nothing she could do about it, so she just watched the stars.

It was a bittersweet activity, Vision had always watched the stars with her. He was the type of person to be able to see the beauty in everything. He also had a greater appreciation for nature than she did.

But no matter how much she missed him, the stars still shone and life kept going day after day and year after year.

And she would be there to see it.

~.~.~.~.~.~

It was another 6 months and she had gone back to her routine of offing zombies for a few hours a day and messing around in her lab before she went to sleep for the rest of the time which she could not use.

This routine was only slightly changed by the fact that they were gathering. They were getting organized and that could be dangerous.

She walked through the silent streets, her body on edge as she walked through the rubble.

The zombies may have had an unspoken rule about her but she wasn’t about to take any chances.

The rule was they didn’t attack and their living death was extended for a lot longer than it would have been if they attacked her.

This, of course, didn’t matter to one of them who had attacked her in a green blur.

She growled and kicked their pelvis, it wouldn’t hurt them but it would screw up their center of gravity giving her the upper hand.

They stumbled back as she pulled both her handguns and aimed them at the zombie who had dared to attack her.

“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t blow your brains out?” she sneered as she gave her dual handguns a little wiggle.

Normally, she would shoot without hesitation. But today she was feeling rather…generous.

“I can see why Kingpin was so set on bringing you into the fold.”

She internally groaned, first this clown now Kingpin? “No thanks but I’m not down to be the token girl in your super-secret boyband,” she said as the clicked the safety of her gun off and set her finger on the trigger.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A disgusting guttural laugh passed through his decayed teeth “Your precious Vision is still very much alive.”

Melissa’s silver eyes widened and her breath hitched in her throat as she stared at the green monster in front of her.

“Kill me and you’ll never see him again.”


	14. Reunions and Death Wishes

“You tellin’ the truth?” she asked as her eyes searched the dead eyes of the green monster who she had now identified as Jackal a villain who generally fought Spider-man.

“Why would I lie?”

“Don’t ask me,” she growled

“I have no reason.” he sneered back as he started to move towards her.

She shot him, the bullet tearing his flesh as it grazed his arm “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“I’d hate for you to keep Kingpin waiting. He doesn’t like to wait.”

She pressed her lips, which were coated in dark blue lipstick, into a tight line as she considered his words.

What did she really have to lose?

“Fine,” she said as she stuck her guns back in their holsters “But if you’re lying about Vision I will blow your brains out before you can even think of an excuse.”

He growled but nodded as he led her away.

~.~.~.~.~.~

She stood on the outside of a building with Jackal, it had once been the city council building.

But that was years ago.

She stood tall and walked behind him as a few zombies gathered to watch as she walked past.

They were curious and rightly so.

She was an oddity to begin with and now? Well, she was the equivalent of a needle in a planet-sized haystack.

Vulture gave as best a grin as he could without lips “Kingpin will be pleased that you brought her.”

“It wasn’t too hard to convince her.” Jackal laughed “All I needed to do was tell her about her precious little robot.”

A feral sounding growl emitted from her throat as she narrowed her eyes “Call him a robot and I’ll rip your brains out through your nose.”

They laughed as if she hadn’t just threatened to kill him and Jackal led her inside the building and to a room with a fire raging in the fireplace and a long blood covered table lit by the fire.

“Ah, White Widow.” Kingpin announced as he turned to her and away from the long window with a wine glass full of blood and eyeballs in hand “You’ve come.”

“I didn’t have much choice now did I?”

He chuckled and waved Jackal away “You’ve always been an interesting one.”

“I get that a lot.”

“Not so much anymore, I’d assume,” he said as he poured another glass full of blood and set it on the table in front of her.

“Cut the shit Wilson.” she sneered “What do you want?”

“Down to business I see.” he said as he sat down, inviting her to sit across from him “You have something I need. Your intelligence. We have a cloning operation of sorts, one that will feed all of us, in the works and we need someone like you. Someone uninfectable. Someone who’s worked with the greatest minds on earth.

No thanks. I don’t much feel like working with a bunch of decaying corpses.”

“You’ve worked with me before. Why not now?”

“I had no morals and you paid well.” she said dryly “And all I was doing was killing people. Not creating them so they can be raised like cows for slaughter.”

“Saying no isn’t an option.” he said as he raised his glass full of blood to his teeth “Not unless you want Vision to die.”

She stayed, looking completely unfazed despite how shaken she really was “You’re bluffing.”

“Quite the contrary.” he said before he took a sip “You can even see him.”

“Fine,” she said, “But if you’re lying I will blow this place sky high with no hesitation.”

“I would expect nothing less.” he said as he called Jackal back in “Escort her all the way downstairs.”

He gave a nod and grabbed her by her upper arm causing her to growl and rip her arm away “touch me again and you lose your hands.”

He laughed just like before and led her three stories down to the basement.

It was dark, dingy and just an absolutely miserable place overall.

She looked around as Jackal flicked on the lights before her eyes widened in horror.

“Vis…” she whispered after she ran over to him, her voice full of sadness as she saw him stuck to a pillar, partially disassembled, wires stuck in the places where he had been disassembled and in various places on his torso with what was left of his frame being covered in deep dents and scratches.

She reached out and gently touched his face “Oh Vis…”

“Melissa…” he whispered in such a soft voice that if the room had not been dead quiet she might not have heard him.

He leaned into her gentle touch eagerly, it was such a welcome change from the pain he had been subject to for the past years. 

She looked almost exactly the way he remembered her. Her bright silver eyes, her long straight hair that framed her heart-shaped face, the soft sweetness in her voice. Her.

It was her. The memory of her had kept him from giving up all hope in those past years. And now she was here, standing in front of him, almost as if the years that had kept them apart never happened.

He pressed soft kisses to the heel of her hand it was all he could do and he wanted to prolong the feeling of her touch for as long as he possibly could.

He desperately wanted to beg her to stay. To be able to tell her how much he had missed her. Tell her how much he needed her. He wanted her to stay with him more than he possibly could want anything ever.

He finally spoke, his words contradicting everything he wanted so desperately and his voice raspy from lack of use “Leave…please…run.”

She shook her head “No, I’m not leaving you. Not again.”

He looked at her intently, studying her face. Her mind was made up and they both knew it. 

And it broke his heart. 

He wanted her to stay, more than anything. But it would be at the cost of her happiness and worse, her freedom.

He would never want to deprive her of that. She deserved so much better.

“Oh, how sweet.” Jackel sneered.

"Shut the fuck up before I paint that wall over there with your brains." She snapped

"you've had your little visitation long enough" he growled as he stepped forward and grabbed her arm she maneuvered her arm so she was grabbing his arm instead and she twisted it until a silencing crack rang through the room.

"I told you not to touch me." She snapped as she pushed him away from her "I'll be back…I promise I'm not leaving you behind again."

He nodded "Please…be safe."

She nodded and gave him her signature crooked smile "I always am."

She walked with Jackal back to the room where she had been before to see Kingpin still there looking like the cat who ate the canary

"Was that proof enough for you?"

"Yes." She said curtly "what will it take to get him out of there."

"You stay here and help us and we'll let you both go whenever we see fit."

It was a very one-sided deal. But what choice did she have?

If she just said no she'd either have to walk away without Vision leaving him to the mercy of these monsters.

If she attacked Kingpin there wouldn't be enough time for her to repair Vision and get them out of there before they became overrun and possibly killed.

She let out a shaky breath before she finally spoke.

"You have a deal."


	15. Gentle Touches and Dead Bodies

She was stripped of her weaponry and made to go back into the basement to get to work on the cloning machine.

Though she would have gone back either way.

She saw that Vision’s face lit up a bit as he saw her once more “Melissa…”

She ran over to him and stood on her tiptoes as she gently held his face in her hands “It’s been so long since I’ve last seen you.”

He smiled slightly and leaned his head into the crook of her neck “I know my love… I’m so sorry that you had to give up your freedom for me…”

She shook her head and held onto him “No, don’t be. I made my choice and I chose to stay with you.”

He sighed softly and nuzzled against her “I love you.”

“I love you too.” She whispered as she pressed soft kisses to his sensitive skin.

He needed her now more than ever and she knew it. “I won’t leave you. Not ever again.”

~.~.~.~.~.~

She stayed with Vision for as long as she could. All the while she built something that was objectively a masterpiece.

A wrong and fucked up masterpiece but one nonetheless.

And she hated every second of it.

Vision could see the toll that it took on her.

Her touch had not become any less loving and gentle.

No, quite the opposite. If anything her touch had become more gentle and loving.

But he could see the sadness in her eyes.

It was clear that she hated herself for what she was doing.

But she did it anyway.

For him.

~.~.~.~.~.~

A soft sigh fell from her lips as she leaned her head against Vision’s chest, the action was comforting for the both of them.

In a better world, they’d be at home, wherever that may be, curled up in each other's arms as they watched The Great Gatsby for the three millionth time.

Unfortunately for them, this was not that world.

She leaned her head against his chest, as he did his best to comfort her.

He wanted desperately to be able to hold her in his arms, but he couldn’t. It was one of the many many things that had been taken from him by the monsters that had held them captive.

“Well be out of here one day soon.” She whispered.

He nodded slowly “I’m sure we will be.”

~.~.~.~.~.~

She stood in front of her horrible creation as they powered it on.

Under different circumstances she would have been positively giddy at the opportunity to work with inhuman technology.

But these were not different circumstances.

Her face was stoney and cold as she watched the machine work.

It worked perfectly.

She got congratulations from a whole slew of those monsters. To them what she had done was a godsend. She had done what others alone could not she had recreated life from nothing more than a few dying cells.

Deadpool, whose healing factor had done nothing to stop him from becoming one of the infected, set his hand on her shoulder in a congratulatory manner “Good work assassin buddy!”

She turned and grabbed him by his neck as she pinned him against the closest wall “I am not your buddy. I am not your friend. Hell I’m not even your acquaintance. All those ties were cut when you let yourself get infected.” she snarled as she applied more pressure to his neck. Threatening to pop his head off his body at a second’s notice.

“Got it senorita!”

“Put him down. You don’t want anything to happen to your precious Vision, do you.” Kingpin threatened, with a light almost friendly tone in his voice.

A small growl tore itself from her throat as she let go of him, letting him stumble as he landed on the ground.

“I did what you wanted.” she said “Now let us go.”

“No no, you’ve proved yourself far too useful.” Kingpin said with a twisted smile which was primarily comprised of his decaying teeth.

Her already curled hands tensed, ready for her to punch someone as she felt the rage bubble up inside her. She knew that if she had blood it would be boiling.

Why would they keep them? She had already served her purpose?

Was it to torture them? Or something worse?

She said nothing and turned on her heel, heading back to the basement. She knew that she should have seen it coming.

Was she losing her touch?

It was a laughable thought really. How can you lose something that was ingrained into your very being since you were a child.

She walked into the basement, the sickened feeling in her chest making her want to scream “It’s done.”

“Can we leave?”

She sighed and shook her head “No…Apparently I’ve made myself too useful…and honestly I might have made myself too much of a threat to them before this. I killed a lot of them, including some really powerful ones. I got away scot-free for the most part.” She said as she tapped the bite shaped patch of vibranium.

“Were you the one who killed Colossus?”

“Yeah…he was the one who gave me this bite…He told me that he’d killed you…I just…” she sighed and rubbed her eyes, “I snapped.”

He gave her a sympathetic look “I’m so sorry…”

“It’s okay…” she mumbled before she kissed his cheek.

She leaned her head against the crook of his neck and sighed softly, “We’ll get through this…right?”

“Of course my love, we always do.”


	16. Clones and Panic Attacks

She glided across the stage as if she were completely weightless, like gravity itself had stopped affecting her as she danced.

A few strands of her chocolate brown hair framed her heart-shaped face as she performed for the audience.

Her deep black pointe shoes barely touched the ground as she danced around the stage, the sheer chiffon fabric of her skirt flowed like liquid as she spun and danced around the stage.

The music came to a sudden but planned stop as the crowd erupted into cheers.

They weren’t just for her.

But it still felt good.

**_My name is Libitna Ivanova I am one of 28 young ballerinas with the Bolshoi._ **

A smile came to her face as she looked at over to Natalia.

**_Training is hard, but the glory of the soviet culture and the warmth of my parents… my parents… makes up for the…_ **

All the girls wanted the honor of being the Black Swan, including Libitina herself. Only Natalia got the honor. But that was okay.

**_That’s not right._ **

The cheers only escalated as the girls smiled and bowed to them all the while blowing kisses. Prompting the crowd to try and catch them as if they were real tangible objects.

**_I am one of 28 Black Widow agents with the Red Room._ **

The world around her shifted the crisp white outfits become stained in blood, little pieces of fabric from the black outfit that was donned by the Black Swan was littered on the stage as if they were ripped from it.

**_Training is hard but the glory of soviet supremacy and the warmth of my parents…No…_ **

She looked to Natalia to see her vibrant red hair no longer in the tight bun it had been in but rather loose, ragged, and patchy as she lunged at her. Trying to rip out her throat.

**_That doesn’t make sense…_ **

A terrified scream ripped its way from her chest as she lifted her hands to protect herself before the world around her glitched again.

**_Who am I?_ **

She stood in the middle of the glossy stage the audience empty, her hands and dress covered in fresh ruby red blood, as all around her lay the bodies of all her peers.

And at her feet lay the body of Natalia Romanova, her neck was snapped at an odd angle as blood dripped from her nose and mouth.

Tears welled up in her eyes as her hands shook and she sobbed.

She’d killed them.

She’d killed them all.

~.~.~.~.~.~

A sharp gasp cut through the air as she woke from her memory fueled nightmare.

“A nightmare.” she muttered as she brought her feet down from the pipe that she had rested them on “Just a nightmare.”

She buried her face in her hands as she tried to force herself to stay calm and most importantly quiet.

She had just barely convinced Vision that she was safe enough for him to sleep so he could give his systems a much-needed rest.

It had been 25 years since humanity fell and 22 years since she had allied herself with Kingpin.

In that time she had more or less secured her place in the hierarchy. They allowed her to roam the compound virtually unchecked, still no weapons though.

She could leave the compound if she so desired. She wasn’t a flight risk, not as long as Vision was still captive there and the zombies allied with Kingpin knew that attacking her would mean their permanent death.

She was even allowed to talk to the only non-zombified human she’d seen since the fall.

Vanessa Fisk was a rather nice woman despite her husband being the worst. A part of Melissa suspected that she was only allowed to talk to Vanessa because she didn’t really have anyone else to talk to. 

The only zombie who could control their hunger around her and not eat her was Kingpin and he wasn’t around her all that much. It made sense that she, as the only other living and fully functional being, was allowed to talk to her.

She didn’t really leave the basement unless she had to or she had another idea for escaping that she thought might work. She wasn’t exactly a people person, to begin with, turned out that she wasn’t a zombie person either.

At this point, Melissa was just biding her time. She needed to get herself and Vision out of there. Staying there was destroying the both of them and it was incredibly obvious to her.

However, there was one big glaring issue that stood in their way.

There were too many of them. Leaving Vision behind wasn’t an option and the fact that he wasn’t exactly in one piece was another roadblock that would be a lot harder to get over.

The only way for her to get them out of there was to bide her time and wait. Wait for a weakness to expose itself so she could exploit it.

She sighed softly and pushed back her hair with her fingers before she propped her feet back up on the pipe as she leaned back on the rolling chair she was sitting on.

She closed her eyes and did her best to wait out the rest of the night in silence as there was no way she would be able to sleep again that night, but she knew that Vision desperately needed the sleep and getting him to rest was a fight that she didn’t want to have to go through again.

Her eyes stayed closed as she waited out the night, she was only alerted to it being the morning when Deadpool busted the door open and waltzed on in like he owned the place.

“What the hell do you want Wade?” she snapped at him with a glare.

“Need some weapons fixed Chika.”

She rolled her eyes and told him to put them on the desk in the corner and to leave so she could get to work.

He did as instructed and left the room so she could get to work on fixing the weapons. It was nothing she couldn’t handle just a jammed gun and a messed up katana handle.

She got to work on fixing the damaged weapons in relative silence. It didn’t take much time for her to be done and leave to she could return them to him.

She walked through the halls in silence with the, now fixed, weapons in hand. It was nothing too out of the normal. She would occasionally fix weaponry for the zombies and delivering it wasn’t exactly a new thing. But she had been warned that if she even looked like she planned on using it things wouldn’t end well for her. Which by extension meant that things wouldn’t end well for Vision.

It wasn’t exactly something she wanted to test.

She heard speaking in the room ahead of her and stopped dead in her tracks as she listened to the words which were spoken freely.

A teeny smile came to her face as she continued to eavesdrop on the conversation. The vulnerability had exposed itself.

And she planned to exploit it.


	17. Exploitations and Weapons

Melissa’s nimble blue fingers twirled the katana that she had snagged from Deadpool.

By the time he would figure out that it was gone it would be too late for him to do anything about it.

And if he tried to come and get it back it would be far too late for anything to be done.

She smirked and stopped twirling it before she stuck it to the underside of the desk as Vision woke up.

“What time is it?”

She shrugged “Noon or so. I’d have to go back up to check.”

He nodded and looked at her “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” she said “I just…had a nightmare…but I’m fine now.”

He looked at her with a bit of a frown, “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“It wasn’t that bad.” she lied, not entirely convincing him “Plus, you needed the rest.”

“Maybe so but I worry for you,” he said in a soft voice, knowing full well that she was lying. He was the one person she could never convincingly lie to.

“It’s okay love.” she said mumbled as she pushed her hair back and away from her face “I promise.”

He sighed softly and nodded “I wish I could do more.”

“It’s okay my love, I promise,” she said before she stood to attention when the decomposing corpse of Kingpin walked in.

“Good, you’ve learned.”

She scowled, the disdain in her expression clear as day. At best she was tolerant of the zombies who held Vision and her captive.

Tolerant was the word that she would use on a good day and those monsters had made that day, a great day. The kind of day that would make you feel like you were on cloud nine.

“What do you want?” she snapped keeping up the pissed off and short-fused facade. The last thing you want to do, especially when behind enemy lines, is to let the enemy know that you have a plan.

“We need your assistance as Jackal has proven himself to be useless,” he said swirling his usual glass of blood and viscera in his hand.

“With what?” she said in a snappy voice “I’m gonna need more than just ‘I need your help’.”

“We need to rebuild the teleporter you and Magneto destroyed. We have…plans which we need it for.”

“You better have the blueprints for it or else I won’t be able to do shit,” she said as she walked forward to leave the basement.

Her hands were held behind her back as she walked and she held out her first two fingers for Vision to see.

Two fingers meant she’d be back. Three meant escape.

Needless to say, three had never been used.

She gave a little wave as she left the basement behind Kingpin, she’d always go back to Vision, always.

~.~.~.~.~.~

The familiar sound of metal banging on metal rang through the air as she welded the finishing the pieces of the base together “There,” she muttered as she flipped the mask, she wore to protect her face, up and inspected her work.

It didn’t look the prettiest but it needed to be functional, not pretty.

Stood from her crouching position and yelled out for the next parts, she needed to finish the shell if she wanted to stay on schedule.

And considering the consequences for not staying on schedule weren’t all that favorable she really wanted to stay on schedule.

One of the zombified lackeys brought over the pieces as Morbius, the not so living vampire, walked over to inspect her work.

“What do you want bloodsucker?” she snapped as she crouched back down and got the next piece into place.

“Just checking to ensure that you’re on schedule.” he sneered as best as his lipless face would allow him.

“I’m fine, plus I doubt you’re qualified to make any comments on my work. You specialize in medical matters and I can assure you this is not a medical matter,” she said in a flat voice as she flipped the mask back over her face and got back to welding.

Her and Morbius were on good terms pre-fall, the same, however, could not be said about now.

She worked late into the night and through to the morning, finishing the shell of the teleporter and starting on the much more delicate inner pieces that were necessary in order to make it work.

She took the soldering iron and finished up the motherboard that she was working on before she moved the magnifying glasses away from the delicate bit of machinery.

“Are you finally done?”

“Yeah, I’m done.” she snapped as she carefully placed the motherboard into the frame of the teleporter “and several weeks ahead of YOUR schedule.”

“I’ll let Kingpin know,” he said as he looked at her while she closed up the teleporter. Sealing the delicate inner bits away from the outside world.

“Uh-huh, you do that.”

“Ah!” Kingpin said as he walked to the room after he was notified of the teleporter being finished “you’ve finished.”

She nodded curtly and glanced at him as the teleporter was successfully booted up, revealing a glowing white portal.

“Perfect, everything is going to plan.”


	18. Sins and Tragedies

She was dismissed and did what she’d been wanting to do since the moment she’d left the basement.

Go back to the basement.

She went back into the basement and went right over the Vision “Hello my love.”

He smiled softly and pressed a few soft kisses to her right hand that caressed his cheeks in the most loving way “I was worried when you didn’t return…”

Her expression became sad as glanced away for a moment “I’m sorry my love, I had to get the teleporter done…I couldn’t get behind schedule, there would be consequences…I couldn’t let them hurt you, not any more than they’ve already hurt you” she whispered as she held his face in her hands.

“Please.” he murmured as she pressed another gentle kiss to her hand “Please, worry for yourself before you worry for me”

She shook her head, “I worry for you because you don’t worry for yourself.”

He sighed softly and leaned his head against her shoulder “I suppose that we both need to worry about ourselves a bit more.”

Gentle kisses were pressed to his red skin as he rested his head against her shoulder “I love you.”

“I love you too,” He said as he smiled and nuzzled his head against her shoulder.

They soon broke contact, as they heard a loud rumble from the above area of the compound.

“It’s from the teleporter…” she muttered, “poor bastards, I almost feel bad for whoever is gonna be stuck with them…”

He nodded a bit “They don’t stand much of a chance, unfortunately, …our world is proof of that.”

She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair before she looked up at the ceiling of the basement and then back down to the ground.

“Now we just need to wait.”

“For what?”

“For their plan to proceed a bit further,” she mumbled, partially in thought as she twirled the stolen katana in her hand.

She said nothing more as to why exactly they needed to wait but he completely trusted her judgment and understood that she had to have had a reason for not saying anything further “I assume you have a reason?”

“Of course I do.” she said with a little laugh in her voice “What kind of idiot do you take me for?”

“A very smart one.”

“Isn’t that an oxymoron?”

“Yes.”

She rolled her eyes with a smile and then plopped down into the rolling chair “Well, however oxymoronic it may be, I have something in mind and am ready to act on it at a moment’s notice.”

He nodded in understanding, “I hope it works.”

“So do I, Vis,” she whispered, “So do I.”

~.~.~.~.~.~

A few days passed, mostly, uneventfully as Melissa and Vision stay in the basement, exchanging gentle words and loving kisses throughout their time together.

“I love you.”

“I love you too” Melissa murmured as she gently stroked his cheek with her thumb.

The door burst open as Jackal walked into the basement the same exact way that Deadpool did, just like he owned the place.

It pissed her off to no end.

“Kingpin needs your presence now.”

She blew a puff of air in obvious annoyance and nodded as she let her hand fall away from Vision’s face and walked to the door.

“I’ll be back love,” she said softly as she left the basement and walked with Jackal to where Kingpin was, waiting for the both of them.

A swirling lavender toned portal was opened as Melissa and Jackal stood behind Kingpin as they watched the portal

“Your highness welcome. We have much to discuss.” Kingpin said in his usual booming voice as the Inhuman royal family walked through the portal “We have been monitoring our agent in…the other world and there is much progress to report. All our planning is about to come to fruition. The gospel-” Melissa’s lip curled into a sneer at that word “will spread. But you have journeyed a long way from the Blue Area of the Moon. First, a repast. Jackal, White Widow?”

“All of our arts were used to generate a special herd for you and the royal family Black bolt.” Jackal said as he opened the door which led into the area where the clones were held “Bon appetit.”

She heard a small scuffing noise and turned her head to it as she saw a flash of silver disappear behind a corner. Kingpin, taking notice, looked at her “What is it?”

“Nothing, probably just a stray rat or something.”

He looked at her, almost suspiciously for a few seconds before his attention was captured by the humans which had been created for the purpose of consuming.

They screamed in raw unfiltered fear as the zombies attacked them, ripping their soft flesh away from their bones with their teeth.

Her eyes were shut tight as she turned her face away from the carnage. Even after all the years, she still hated it.

All those people were raised like nothing more than pigs for slaughter.

They would never be able to see the sun or the stars, none of the beauty of the world would be theirs to see.

Their whole life was spent in unconsciousness up until they were dragged out of the electric green mucus-like liquid that they resided in and consumed.

All they knew was pain for their short life.

She hated it.

Even more, she hated herself. 

Hated herself for being the reason they existed only to be killed and eaten.

Hated herself for not being able to do anything about it.

The muscles in her body were tense and as hard as a rock as she listened to the zombies while they tore into the clones.

Her eyes flew open as she heard gunshots ring through the air.

Gunshots? She was the only one in the compound to use guns besides Wade but he was off serving as the distraction in the other world and even still he very rarely used his guns, preferring to use blades and just about anything else for the sake of creativity.

“Whoever he is!!” Kingpin roared “Tear him apart!!!” 

A tiny smirk came to her face as she poked her head into the room to see Aaron Stack, a.k.a. Machine Man wreaking havoc on the zombies which had held her and Vision captive for so many years.

She turned on her heel and ran back down to the basement, she was going to need that sword a little sooner than she thought she would.

That Aaron was probably from the other world, the Aaron of her world was killed in the group of what she assumed to be college kids back when her, Wanda, and Dazzler were trying to get Ash to Latveria.

Those poor kids, killed in what had to be the most humiliating and degrading way possible.

But she couldn’t dwell on it at the moment, she had other much more important matters to worry about at the moment. 

Namely getting to the basement before she got intercepted by anyone.

She pushed open the door as quickly as possible before she snatched up the sword that was on the underside of the desk.

“Looks like what I had in mind is gonna end up happening a lot sooner than I thought,” she said as she glanced at Vision.

“Please…stay safe.” he murmured as he looked at her.

She smirked as she hooked on of the sheathes she’d stolen from Deadpool to the back of her suit “I always am.”


End file.
